Teaching Darkness: Visions
by Rae Logan
Summary: Sequel to my hit story "Teaching Darkness". Mephiles now lives with Rouge and Shadow, and has enjoyed his new lease on life. But when he starts losing sleep over what he thought were just nightmares, he's even more horrified to find them to be coming true
1. Quite a Fright

Okay... just as I promised... here's the start of "Teaching Darkness: Visions"

This has got to be the longest chapter I have ever written... and it get's longer with each word...

Enjoy...

* * *

Mephiles was gazing out the window of Rouge's house, amusing himself by trying count how many birds hung around on the telephone wires. Every time he got to what he thought would be the last number… more birds would come, and several would leave in a flurry of feathers, causing him to lose track of his number, and have to restart again. 

It had been several months since Mephiles had tried to gain possession of a Chaos Emerald to further help his plans to cast this world in to a land of fire and darkness, hoping that the silver hedgehog he had convinced to try to kill the blue hedgehog known as Sonic the Hedgehog, to cause his own human "sister", Princess Elise of Soleanna, to shed a tear or two, and release the seal that kept his fiery "brother", Iblis, locked away from the world, and inside the Princess.

After he did get his hands on an Emerald, he was promptly beaten into submission by Shadow the Hedgehog, who was not related to the blue hedgehog, but bore a vague resemblance (_very _vague…) to him.

Fearing that he had lost, Mephiles took a last ditch effort to keep his plans going… and melded himself to Shadow, and resided in his mind for two days. Unfortunately, Mephiles had not looked further into the possible consequences of having forced two minds to reside in the same brain, and after several initial brain takeovers… Mephiles had accidentally caused the two hedgehogs' minds, personalities, and emotions to criss and cross so that once the two were forced apart… neither were the same as they were before.

Mephiles was able to control his change of heart relatively well… But Shadow could not control the lustful hunger for revenge that Mephiles had harbored, and he gave in completely, promptly attacking Rouge and Mephiles. Mephiles had taken a good number of the thrashing to keep Rouge as less injured as possible, and even had received a bleeding chest wound close to where his heart was, but despite the blood loss, still kept fighting until he could no longer keep his head up, but managed to freeze Shadow with an Emerald's energy.

He gave Rouge the Emerald to wish upon it and fix everything. He immediately passed out once the correction was made; not knowing that another wish was made on the Emerald, which had been for him, until he woke up to find himself slightly changed in his appearance; with a mouth, nose and feet that were not masses of mist. Rouge had wished that he would be able to start over with his life and live it out the way he wanted to. He had chosen to take residence with them, mainly because he had grown a little fond of them… and partly because he nowhere else to go.

He ran his tongue over his nice set of teeth, tongue brushing against his fangs as he gave up on trying to count the birds, and turned away from the window to cross the room and sit down on the couch. He picked up the remote to the television and switched it on, skipping through a few local channels to tune in to "Scrubs", his favorite comedy show, next to "Futurama" and "Family Guy", which usually came on later.

The doorbell rang and he ducked behind the couch due to his dislike of answering doors, mainly because it would either be door-to-door fundraiser kids, or those nice people with ties that handed out pamphlets and rode bikes to each house they visited.

The doorbell rang again, and Mephiles sank lower to the floor, hoping he could disappear from sight. Shadow called out, exasperatedly: "_I'll_ get it…", as he passed Mephiles, and sent an annoyed stare his way.

Mephiles peered around the side of the couch to see who it was, and nearly choked on his breath when he saw who was standing on the other side of the door.

A cobalt blue hedgehog with streamlined quills, green eyes and a pair of red running shoes was grinning at Shadow.

"Hey, Shad…" He said. "… You still up for that rematch?"

Shadow sighed, as if they go through this occurrence a lot.

"Are you _still _going on about that? I beat you fair and square…"

"It was a close call, remember?" The hedgehog smirked. "Too close to declare a winner…"

Mephiles watched the hedgehog fixedly, feeling something old rekindle inside of him as he tilted his head. This was the "Iblis Trigger" he had told Silver to kill. He almost scoffed at himself for trusting that kid to do the job… Sonic was still alive and standing before him.

Mephiles realized suddenly where his mind had drifted, and forced the old goal to the back of his mind. He had no reason to kill him anymore… his window of opportunity had passed much too long ago, and he didn't really want to do it anymore, considering the whole mess almost resulted in his own death. Still… he couldn't help but stare at him. Sonic seemed like he took great pride in being the Fastest Thing Alive, as he kept pressuring Shadow to do the race rematch.

Shadow was steadily losing his patience, and decided to slowly close the door, hoping Sonic would take the hint and just leave him alone.

The door was almost shut as Sonic kept on hassling the Ultimate Lifeform, before the Blue Blur pushed the door open once he spotted Mephiles hiding behind the couch. Had Mephiles not looked so different, Sonic might have recognized him from his brief glimpse of the shade when Team Sonic had been sent into the far future by means of Eggman's time machine, and might have demanded a few questions to be asked. But that was not the case…

Sonic sped into the room in a blink of an eye, and was now crouching down to be eye level with Mephiles, who inched back nervously. Sonic was gave him a friendly smile and stuck out his hand, to which Mephiles flinched at.

"Hi! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, the Fastest Thing on Two Legs…" He declared proudly. "… I don't think we've met before…"

Shadow watched the two with a worried look on his face that no one saw. He wasn't sure what would happen, but immediately assumed the worst as Mephiles still had the tendency to switch back to his old self when presented with something that triggered an old habit or memory.

Mephiles' lime green eyes briefly flashed a look of fanatically malevolent thought, which Sonic had not caught, because his eyes were closed. Mephiles quickly caught himself and forced himself to remain calm and timidly return Sonic's gesture, loosely shaking hands with him.

"… I'm Mephiles… Mephiles the Dark…"

"'Dark'? What kind of animal is that?"

Mephiles quickly looked up at Shadow for help answering that question, and only got a shrug.

"… I-I-I'm not sure…" He stammered out, looking away awkwardly as he pulled his hand from Sonic's light grip.

"Maybe it's related to a hedgehog…" Sonic mused as he stood up. "… You look like a bright sharply quilled hedgehog and you…"

"Okay!" Said Shadow, clapping his hands together as a gesture that the conversation should probably end now. "I think that's enough introductions for today!" Shadow stepped behind Sonic, and began to push him toward the door. "Thank you for your visit… but, we have a _very _busy day planned for us ahead! Good day to you!"

He pushed him out and slammed the door shut, turning the deadbolt and drawing the blinds shut in one swift movement, before turning around and leaning against the door with a sigh, sliding down some as he facepalmed himself softly. He then lowered his gaze to Mephiles, who found himself to be shivering slightly for some inexplicable reason.

Mephiles' heart was beating painfully fast and causing him to pant heavily. It had taken all of his will power to keep himself composed, but his dark side had almost slipped through. He was really working hard to suppress that side, which he often referred to as "Dark" to Rouge and Shadow, but sometimes it was just too hard, and it was advised that he take a break from everything and have some meditation time.

He forced Dark back into the farthest corner his mind and took a deep breath, then pulled himself onto the couch, sinking into the cushions with a sigh. Shadow left his place at the door and stepped across the room to stand by Mephiles, who now had his hand over his eyes to block out any sight at all, and had his head tilted back and resting on the top edge of the back of the couch.

"… I didn't like that at all…" He mumbled under his breath, which had begun to slow down once he had regained his equanimity. "… Dark almost had a _field day_ back there…"

Shadow leaned forward and rested his arms on the arm of the couch, staring at Mephiles with concern… a not so usual occurrence, as Shadow was still bitter towards him for trying to control his mind.

But he couldn't help but notice that Mephiles was looking rather worn out and weary lately, like maybe he wasn't getting enough sleep during the night. His shard like quills had begun to droop and dull around the edges, his naturally pale muzzle had paled a couple of shades, and the shading around his eyes seemed to have darkened.

It also seemed like his train of thought derailed at the station a great deal of the time now, as he would habitually trail off in mid sentence and gaze vacantly at nothing in particular for up to ten seconds enough times of the day to be a worrying factor, before shaking his head lightly and returning to his previous activity, a great majority of the time totally unaware of most of his absence seizures.

Shadow had "Googled" it online about a month ago, and found that it was possible for someone to develop absence seizures as a result of a blow to the head. Feeling guilty for slamming his own head into Mephiles' when he had gone homicidal a few months previous, Shadow read on, and matched up a couple of Mephiles' symptoms to the ones listed, and was a little relieved when he read that it was usually nothing to cause for alarm, and that it had no lasting effect on brain functions and could be grown out of in a matter of time.

Still, Shadow couldn't disregard the fact that Mephiles was a little unstable emotionally, and with the battling against his dark side, he was bound to have a hard time until his blanking out episodes subsided.

Mephiles suddenly became aware of his concern, and lifted his hand from his eyes to stare at him.

"… What?"

Shadow looked away briefly before turning his attention back to the shade, one ear perked higher than the other.

"… Have you… been sleeping alright lately?" Shadow asked slowly, trying to word it right.

"… Why do you ask?"

"… You look like you've had insomnia recently… and you look like you're becoming a little ill…"

Mephiles flopped onto his side and curled up a little before responding: "… I haven't…"

"How come?"

Mephiles gazed at him intently before looking down and saying, unnerved: "… Nightmares…"

Only a very small portion of Shadow found this only slightly amusing. Mephiles the Dark, self-proclaimed former "demon" of darkness… had_ nightmares?_

However… nightmares were no laughing matter. Shadow can personally account for that.

"About what?"

Mephiles jumped. He had hoped Shadow wasn't going to ask him that. He folded his arms, deciding to put up his tough-guy act and said testily: "…_Why?_"

"Nightmares can cause harm in one way or another after a long period of time…" Shadow explained, not fazed at all by Mephiles' sudden attitude change. "… If nothing is done to fix the problem… you can get sick in more ways than one…"

"… Like _you_ would know…" Mephiles snapped at him, before catching himself with a soft gasp. "… Sorry…" He said and rolled over and turned his back to him.

Some time passed before Mephiles murmured: "… You're still there… aren't you?"

"Yep…"

"… I'm sorry… but can you please go away? I really don't feel like talking right now…"

Shadow sighed and stood up to leave, stopping at the hallway for a moment, and looking back behind him.

"… I… hope you feel better soon…"

"… I'm not sick…"

"… I know…"

And with that, he left, leaving Mephiles to wonder the full meaning of his words.

Nearing close to six in the evening, the sun had already begun to set, its warm orange glow held back behind the blinds. Mephiles contemplated if he should try falling asleep again or not, and decided that he should. His teeth glinting as his tongue rolled in a wide yawn; he pulled his pillow, which he kept on the couch when not using it, closer and half hugged it, too tired to pull his blanket over himself, as his eyes drifted shut and his mind blacked out.

* * *

He awoke with a start, gasping harshly as his chest heaved up and down in tune to his whines of distress. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room, and he found that he was on the floor with Rouge holding him up slightly as she sat on her knees, and Shadow leaned over him, dabbing his sweat dripped face gently with a hand towel. 

Mephiles' watery eyes wandered the room as he whimpered hysterically, unable to calm himself down on his own. He tried to ask what had happened, but could only babble incoherently as his tongue refused to work properly. He started to cry, out of the unexplainable terror he had felt the moment he had woken up.

He felt Rouge scratch him behind the ears, and was dumbfounded by how much of a lulling effect such a simple action, like itself, had on him, and his tears and cries began to ebb away, and were reduced to short moan like whimpers.

Shadow continued to dab at Mephiles' face, wiping a few of the tears away as well, whispering in his best attempt at a soft, comforting voice: "… _Shhh_… It's okay now… it's over… we're here… don't cry, Mephy… don't cry…"

Mephiles brought his hand up slowly and wrapped his fingers around Shadow's wrist, then gave it a weak tug, gesturing to Shadow that he wanted to say something. Shadow stared at him fixedly, showing him he was all ears.

Mephiles regained some control over his tongue, and struggled to whisper heavily: "… S-shadow?"

"… Yes?"

Mephiles' stomach lurched before he stammered: "… I… I'm ready… to t-talk about it, now…"

His stomach turned again, and he wrapped his arms around it, and gave Shadow a pleading look. Shadow caught on, and grabbed the trashcan nearby, dumping the scraps of paper onto the floor, and then thrust the waste bucket into the shade's outstretched hand. Mephiles nodded gratefully before he pitched forward and threw up right into it, feeling increasingly embarrassed as he was painfully aware of his two friends witnessing him barfing up right in front of them.

It was going to be a long night for him…

* * *

End of Chapter One... How was it? 


	2. Fighting It

Three reviews in the first day... nice!

Before I start chapter 2, I just want to tell T.A.R.N.S that no, I don't plan for this to be a slash fic... I just want to aim for Shads and Mephy being friends. But, I do have a couple scenes planned where it falsely interprets itself as mild yaoi. :D

* * *

Mephiles coughed and sputtered, now retching roughly as he held the trashcan in his hands and waited for his upset stomach to calm down before he dared to even start talking. He felt as if he could have died from the embarrassment of this.

He felt someone rub his back to help him feel better, and, again, was amazed at how simple contact between two beings can effect both emotions and sensations in the most positive of ways.

When he was sure his stomach was now empty, Mephiles lifted his head up wearily and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, knowing that his face had probably darkened a couple of shades of pink, as this situation felt extremely awkward, he was sure he was visibly distressed. His body shook with a cold chill that slipped up and down his spine, the sensations of cold spreading quickly from there to his fingertips, making him close his eyes as he shivered and groaned, the foul taste of vomit nastily coating his tongue as his remaining tears slid down his face.

"… What… happened?" He murmured between deep gasps, his tongue still refusing to work right, and his lungs still relatively winded. "… I don't… remember… being on… the floor…"

He opened his eyes and saw Shadow shift uneasily and look behind Mephiles to lock gazes with Rouge, who was still rubbing her hand up and down his back.

"… You have no idea what you were dreaming about?"

"… Vaguely… I remember feeling… terror… and agitation… and even pain… quite clearly… but… I cannot recall… more than just a… few bits and pieces… of it…"

He swallowed back something that was inching up his throat, and lowered his head a little more into the trashcan in case he needed to throw up again. Then he looked at Shadow for a response.

"… You don't really remember it too well?"

Mephiles shook his head lightly, staring at him with a look that asked him to explain it for him.

"… Well… you kinda scared us there for a moment…" Shadow said slowly, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"… How so?"

Shadow looked up.

"…At first, we thought you were having a fit of some kind…"

"… Was I?"

"… No… But it was scary to watch… you were screaming, thrashing around, and shaking like you were being electrocuted or something… you kept on screeching about making the pain stop and _begging_ for someone to help you…"

Mephiles was shaken. That definitely _did_ sound like it was pretty scary to watch. Shadow continued, shifting the cuff of his glove a little as did.

"… You couldn't even _hear_ us… then you started to scream about not being able to breathe and said that you were drowning or something… you even gurgled like you were…"

Shadow pulled back his glove a little to show his wrist to Mephiles, who moaned queasily at the deep teeth marks that had been gouged into the back of it.

"… Your eyes opened, and glinted madly before you grabbed and bit down on my hand…" Shadow looked away solemnly and pulled his hand back, tugging the cuff back over it. "… I think 'Dark' had slipped through then… either that or you were really out of it and possibly delusional… anyway… you bit down and wouldn't let go for a couple of minutes, growling like a dog… you finally let go when you jumped, like you'd been hit or something, and fell on the floor, screaming again for help… then you woke up just a few minutes later, in a panic and now… Are you okay?"

The thought of sinking his teeth so deeply into Shadow's flesh had caused Mephiles' face to pale quickly, and he closed his eyes and groaned… but was thankful that he had nothing left to throw up as his stomach tried to churn, but he still ended up drooling a little, as you tend to do before you barf.

"… I'm sorry…" He moaned weakly. "… I'm so _sorry_ I did that…"

"That's okay… like I said… you were probably delusional…"

Mephiles was breathing heavily now. He had long since set the trashcan down, and was now clutching at his chest fluff, digging his claws into it, scratching his hands up and down his chest. He whimpered before moaning slowly: "… _I'm sorry_… _I'm sorry_... _I'm sorry_…_ I'm sorry_…_ I'm sorry_…_ I'm sorry_…" He did so as he started fall asleep again, exhaustion catching up with and wrapping around him, dragging the shade down into REM sleep with a soft breath of air escaping from him as he continued his low chant. Suddenly… his tone changed, deeper and darker, almost a low rumble in his throat, with a singsong-like rhythm as his chant changed as well. "… _You're not_…_ You're not_... _You're not_..._ You're not_…_ You're not_…_ You're not_…"

For a while, Rouge and Shadow could only watch, unable to really help him as his tones changed back and forth, the good Mephiles' sounding frantic, and the bad one's sounding calm and collected, as if he was trying to pressure Mephiles into breaking, and wanted to drag it out. The facial expressions switched back and forth as well, with Mephiles on the verge of tears when it switched back to him.

Realizing that if this went any further, no good could come from it, Shadow leaned forward and seized the shade by the shoulders and gave him a couple of good shakes. Mephiles head tilted back once he had been pulled forward, and stayed tilted as he hung limply while Shadow tried to shake him awake. His words changed again to: "…_ I'm not_…_ I'm not_…_ I'm not_…_ I'm not_…_ I'm not_…" and Shadow and Rouge feared that Mephiles was losing another brain fight, until he snapped awake as he said: "… _I'm not_…_ I'm not_… _You!_"

At first, after he regained consciousness, he hung limply, as Shadow held him away at arms length, face blank and free from any emotion. He blinked and focused his eyes a little, then frowned as he saw that he had been shaken awake, frowning even more as he saw that Shadow had inadvertently held Mephiles' shoulders in a slightly painful viselike grip, Mephiles feeling bruises beginning to form under Shadow's fingers.

"… _Owwwwww_…"

Shadow let go and Mephiles fell back, glaring at him.

"… That hurt… y'know…"

It was Shadow's turn to say "Sorry".

Mephiles sat up a little better, rubbing his shoulders and cursing to himself before he looked at both Rouge and Shadow.

"… I just remembered some of it…." He said biting his lower lip. "… It's coming back to me…" His ears swiveled back and Rouge and Shadow waited, than he continued on, saying just one word, to which he referred to in the most callous way possible.

"… Water…"

If you knew him well, it was apparent that Mephiles despised water of most kinds. He had almost drowned within the year, caught a cold from it, and absolutely _hated_ how it had caused him so much trouble before.

"… I'm surrounded by water…" He continued. "… And I feel electricity wrap around me and cause me to hurt… So much pain… I scream… Dark is having a field day in my mind… trying to break me and…" He stopped. "… That's it… That's all I can remember right now…"

Shadow exchanged a nervous and worried glace with Rouge.

"That's sounds a little… vague…" Rouge spoke for the first time since Mephiles had woken up.

"… It's all I got for now…" He breathed, folding his arms. "… so right now… I just want to know _why_ I'm getting these nightmares…"

"I'm afraid we can't help you on that…" Said Shadow, shaking his head.

"… Well, if that's the case… help me with something else then…"

"What?"

"Staying awake." Mephiles lowered his head, and brought his shoulders up. "Can't have these stupid nightmares if I don't sleep, right?"

"That's good logic…" Said Rouge. "But it has one big flaw about it…"

"How so?"

"How long are you planning to go without sleep?"

"As long as I ne-" He stopped and his eyes opened wide before he facepalmed. "Dammit… I see the problem now… _fantaaaastic_…" He added sarcastically, practically fuming at himself for not even bothering to think that through. "So, what do I do then? Coffee? Late night movie? 'Bejeweled'? 'Robot Chicken' maybe? What?" He ran through a list of things that may be able to keep him up.

Shadow tossed him a book he had gotten off the shelf, which Mephiles almost dropped because of his bad catching skills. The shade turned it over several times, reading the title, info, and glimpsing through the first pages.

"This…" He said as if hoping Shadow was joking. "… Is a book about… _rabbits_… you want me to read over fifty chapters on a story about… rabbits?"

"Most kids in high school have to… besides, once you get past the beginning… it's pretty damn good…"

"It's about rabbits…"

"I know…"

"Rabbits trying to find a new hole to live in…"

"I think you'd like Fiver… he's a pretty interesting character…

"I can't believe I have to read a book on rabb-"

"YES!" Shadow snapped. "There are _rabbits_ in this book! Just read it!"

Mephiles was taken aback by the reaction, and his ears flattened as he buried his nose in the book. A long pause and he said: "_Bunnies?_"

He almost didn't notice that Shadow looked like he wanted to strangle him for persisting with his excessive use of rabbit related words, before Rouge nudged Shadow in the side and giving him a hard stare.

* * *

End of Chapter 2 :D 


	3. Short Story Long

Okay... I take it back... _this_ is the longest chapter I have ever written...

As far as the book Mephy's reading... It's Watership Down, a very good, and a little graphic, book. In fact... a couple of Mephy's nightmares were loosely inspired by the book. :D

Five reviews... I'm on a roll this week. Thank You. :D

* * *

Mephiles awoke the next morning draped over the back of the couch, Watership Down still in his hand. As he started to slide forward, he wondered how he had ended up there and also wondered why his dreams for the rest of the night were filled fighting rabbits, clawing and kicking at each other. The next thing his mind registered was the pain of the floor slamming into his nose once he hit the ground, feet on the back of the couch while he clamped his hands over his nose and cried out in pain. 

Shadow stuck his head out from inside the kitchen, ears perked.

"You okay? You screamed."

"I hit by dose…" Mephiles said thickly, holding his hands over his nose, and staring up at Shadow. "… I fell off tha couch and hit by dose…"

"It's not bleeding, is it?"

Mephiles pulled his hands away just a little, and shook his head.

"No… bud it hurts…"

"Just give it a minute, it'll stop… You want anything? We have food…"

"Coffee would be dice…"

"We got that…"

"'Kay… I'll be ride dare…"

The moment Mephiles entered the kitchen, he headed straight for the coffee and within a minute was sitting down and taking the first sip as Shadow stirred sugar into his tea.

"So, Meph…" Rouge started as she prodded a waffle with her fork. "Shadow and I were just talking about last night…"

Mephiles spat a mouthful of his coffee back into the cup, and jerked his head up, eyes wide with alarm.

"I thought we were going forget about that!"

"Who said we would?"

"No one… I just _want_ to forget about it!"

"I'm sure you do…" Said Shadow through a mouthful of jam covered toast. "But last night's reaction to it is too much for us to ignore…" He swallowed. "We need to do something about it before it hurts you even more…"

"I'm not hurt…"

"He means effect you mentally and emotionally…" Rouge filled in for them. "… We already know how sensitive you are to-"

"My mind and emotions are just _fine_… Thank you very much!" Mephiles barked as he set his coffee down with enough force cause it to splash out, and he stood up to leaned his weight into his hands that lay flat on the table, boring his hard stare into their eyes back and forth. "I don't _need _any help…" He was assuming they meant see a shrink or psychiatrist or someone who worked in that field. He would be damned before he let someone evaluate his mental stability, only to have him labeled as someone who needed a lot of "help".

Shadow sensed that's what Mephiles thought and continued to explain what he meant.

"I mean we should find the source of your nightmares, and tackle the problem head on…"

"And _how_ do we do _that?_"

"Well… for one…" Shadow started to count off on his fingers. "We know that water is involved… two, that something is causing you pain… three, Dark is also part of it…"

Mephiles inhaled through his nose and sat back down, hands curled into lightly held fists. He stretched his arms out above his head to help wake himself up completely, then slumped back into his chair, folding his arms and looking up at Shadow while stifling a yawn that covered a small snort of laughter.

"And how does _that_ help?" He snickered. "Water is _everywhere_…" His voice darkened a little at this notion, before switching back. "Pain is too… and Dark is _here_…" He tapped a finger to his temple several times to emphasize where he meant. "So other than finding Dark… we're 'Ess Oh Ell'." He pronounced the acronym to the phrase, feeling the use of profanity wasn't really all that necessary at the moment. He leaned forward and grabbed a piece of toast and ate it plain, still laughing about it the whole way. "So unless there's another way… I suggest that we can just forget it."

"And if the nightmares keep coming?"

"Can't do anything!"

Mephiles leaned his chair back on two legs for a moment, using his Chaos powers to keep it balanced, and lifted his feet off the ground a little, then let the chair fall forward with a **THUMP**. He grinned almost childishly and giggled. That's just how he was in the morning: unpredictable until the caffeine buzz of the coffee took effect, and, somehow, he wasn't so impulsive until the evening. He once said he assumed it had to do with his genetic make-up that came from the lab explosion that resulted in his accidental creation, and that some substances would have an opposite reaction with him than with, say, Shadow, while other stuff wouldn't need much to kick in at all.

Rouge exchanged a look with Shadow and the two nodded. Shadow stood up.

"We were also discussing that maybe you should get out of the house today… it's been a month or so since you last stepped out into the sun…"

Mephiles shot an icy glare at him and growled in contempt.

"No. Freaking. Way."

Shadow sighed.

"Are you still going on about that dog?"

"I swear… he was like a little demon hellhound."

"He was a Chihuahua…"

"And the most impish one I've ever seen… he looked like he could be related to Cujo…"

"Cujo was fictional…"

"I'm not going out…"

Ten minutes takes us to the front yard, Shadow standing over Mephiles who was flat on his front in the grass, a small chunk of dirt sitting on the bridge of his nose.

"Have fun, you two!" Rouge waved happily as she turned around, shut the door and the click of the lock could be heard on the other side.

The moment Mephiles realized where he was; he jumped up and darted under a tree out of the rays of the sun, almost hissing heatedly under his breath. His two fortnights from the outside world had made the sun seem unbearably bright to his eyes.

"Are you quite through?" Said Shadow, tapping his foot.

Mephiles was half tempted to say "No.", but decided against it and nodded with difficulty, as he was trying to keep from launching himself at Shadow and mauling him for dragging him out into this brightly colored and cheery looking world… so unlike the dark television shows he enjoyed, like "CSI".

Suddenly, a wheezy growl from ground level sounded off behind them and they swiveled their heads to the source to find a small tricolor Chihuahua standing right behind them. If Shadow had to take a guess… he would say that the dog was really old, and probably senile, as his fur grayed in some places, his tail was partially bald, his eyes where a cloudy brown, and he seemed to have Kennel Cough. Nevertheless, he seemed to be able to see or smell them well, as he turned his attention to Mephiles, who backed away as the dog advanced, a weird little growl in his throat.

Mephiles looked up at Shadow and said as he sweat dropped: "Still think I'm exaggerating?"

"Shut up and run…"

And the two hedgehogs took off down the street, the old dog astonishingly able to keep at their heels.

* * *

Mephiles scratched his claws on the brick wall before them, and stated the obvious. 

"Dead end…"

"_Great_…"

The dog had cornered them in an alleyway, and was now advancing menacingly, and Mephiles could have sworn he saw the dog sneer at them.

Out of terror, Mephiles clamped onto Shadow, his entire body shaking.

"Shadow…" He whimpered. "I know I probably never told you this… But I'm actually glad I chose to resurrect myself from _your_ shadow…"

Shadow realized Mephiles thought they were going to be killed by this dog, and hoped to God that this wouldn't come true.

Mephiles ears flattened and he yowled in fear as he clamped even tighter onto Shadow, like a frightened child, tears beginning to sparkle around the edges of his eyes.

Suddenly, a voice stopped the dog dead in his tracks, and made his ears flatten against his head and give the puppy eyes.

"JAK!" It said. "Get over here right now."

There was purple teenaged fox standing at the open end of the alley, pointing right next to her on the ground.

The first thing Shadow noticed was that she had twin tails like another fox he knew. She even had the same style of shoes, except black. Her hair tufts, however, were short, black and spiky, and she had black hair tufts on the tips of her ears. Her muzzle, inside of her ears, tail tips, and front were a light gray, and her eyes were a deep amethyst. She even had an overbite fang, which was her left one, and wore a beaded necklace that had a bead made pendant that looked like the dog. Jak plodded the best he could and sat down next to her feet, and squeaked. The fox looked up and smiled apologetically: "I'm sorry… he gets like that sometimes…"

"So I'm to assume this little hellhound…" Shadow pushed Mephiles away. "… Is yours… right?"

The fox's eyes flashed a blue color for a moment before changing back.

"Yes…" She said, as if she found that offending.

"You oughtta leash that thing!" Shadow said.

The fox picked up the dog and held him close to her, protectively as the dog started to shake.

"It's not his fault!"

"How so?" Mephiles now stared at the dog, who now seemed startled. Mephiles wondered why.

"Well… you probably should have _raised_ him better…" Shadow huffed at her.

The fox huffed back, causing Shadow to be knocked for six; no one had ever returned one of his angry gestures without fear before.

"I didn't _raise_ him…" She retorted. "I _rescued_ him."

Mephiles was now completely interested.

"From what?" He said in a softer tone than Shadow.

"I found him about a year ago…" She said. "I dunno what happened to him before… but he was stopping traffic over by Burger King, having been left on the streets by whoever had him last. Most of his fur was singed off, he had lost most of his teeth, had gunk all over him, and also got heatstroke from being out in the sun too long." She explained bitterly. "I suppose the only good thing I can say about the first day I met him was that he didn't have any diseases and parasites on him, and he actually took to me the moment I dived under that truck… Mom described it as some heroic act or something… but, I swear… that car was only moving at least 1 mile per hour…" She shook her head, muttering something about "Animal abusing jerk-tards" under her breath.

Mephiles got a better look at the dog's true self and saw him quiver, and burry his nose in the crook of her arm, letting out a hiccupping yip. He now actually felt sorry for him. Shadow had softened too, anger wiping from his face.

"Sorry… I had no idea…"

The fox now smiled friendly like.

"That's okay… no one really does until they get to know him… he's actually really sweet once he trusts you… unless you trigger an old memory of his, then he loses all sense in himself, and there's not much anyone can do except calm him down or wait it out. Jak's story is a sad one… but his ending is happier thanks to me and my family. I have no idea how old he could really be, but if we give him a 'how long in the family' age… he's almost 'one'."

She glanced at the sky for a moment before saying: "Okay… it was nice meeting you, but I really should be getting home… byeee." She dragged out the farewell in such a way that it was imprinted into your mind, due to its bright and cheery tone.

Before she left, Shadow said: "Hey… wait. Since we already know your dog… maybe we could exchange names. I'm Shadow the Hedgehog, and this is Mephiles the Dark."

Shadow had expected her to say something like: "Omigod! It's Shadow the Hedgehog!" like many fans and civilians said, as they knew him from his help and his former job at GUN. This however was not the case.

"I'm Rae Logan…" She stuck out her hand to shake it with his. "My friends call me either 'Rae' or 'RL'; a couple of them call me 'RaeRo-Chan'." She smiled after hands were shook and she turned to leave. "Maybe we'll meet again soon…" She added hopefully as she turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

"What a strange fox…" Shadow mused as he scratched his head.

"I feel sorry for Jak…" Mephiles said, shaking his head almost upset-like. "I find it troubling that someone would and can do that to a helpless animal…"

"There are a lot of jerks out here in the real world…" Said Shadow, also shaking his head. "C'mon… let's get going…"

"Where are we?"

"Downtown Westopolis…" Said Shadow. "I guess since we're here… we might as well spend the day here…"

Mephiles had never been in a downtown city before. He tilted his head back and took in his surroundings, taking note of how big and dizzyingly tall most of the buildings were. He wondered if Crisis City, the one where he met Silver in the future, was once like this one, as he remembered there were buildings that were like these, but collapsed and shattered, some used for bridges to avoid the fire and lava Iblis had laid across the land.

Shadow led Mephiles around, who found himself unable to stop staring upward, seeing how some buildings were tall enough to blot out the sun for you if you stood in front of it.

The next thing Mephiles knew, he was pulled inside an air-conditioned building, and stared at what seemed to be numerous types of computer-like consoles surrounded by plastic bubbles, much smaller than his one that had used in the future that had been abandoned.

He walked to one of the walls and looked at the large amount of thin, rectangular plastic boxes, all differently labeled.

He then focused his attention on a white upright console, and a matching remote with no more than 5 buttons on it. He picked it up, and watched on the screen as the character lifted a sword the same way. He swung his arm out to the side, and the character did as well. His eyes widened in amusement as a playful smile spread across his face. Shadow was watching him, and laughed inwardly to himself.

Mephiles had discovered the Nintendo Wii.

* * *

Several hours had the two of them exiting the store, Mephiles practically jumping with excitement, blabbering on and on about how much fun that was. 

"… I mean, in the future, we don't have this kind of stuff, y'know… Iblis more or less destroyed everything, so we don't really have stores… I mean, we do, but now one actually runs them, because nearly everyone is dead there. And that abandoned computer I used a lot only had 'Tetris' and 'MineSweeper', as well as we have absolutly_ no_ internet, at all…"

He just kept on, positively enjoying that he could finally share this kind of thing with, and kept on, and on, and on, and on…

And stopped suddenly.

Shadow realized that Mephiles was no longer walking beside him. He turned around, and saw Mephiles had stopped shock still just several feet away.

Mephiles raised a hand to his forehead and groaned, swaying from side to side as he quivered, as if a sudden chill had plagued him.

His legs gave out, and he was on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. His quivering became full on shaking, and he started coughing a horrible sounding cough, as if something vile was caught in his lungs. He pressed a hand against the opposite side, his arm against his stomach.

His eyes were pained and glazed over, and he stared right past Shadow. He hung his head low and limply, making the most frightening of moans and cries Shadow had ever heard. Then suddenly… Mephiles screamed.

Shadow's quills stood on end at how shrill it sounded, and he too felt shivers run throughout his body.

Mephiles doubled over, clawing frantically at his neck, as if trying to shred something off of it, curling and uncurling on the ground as the tremors continued.

"…_Help me!_ _Somebody, _any_body! Help! Help me!_" He screeched out painfully, quills and fur puffed out. He started to cry again, as if no one_ wanted_ to help him, though Shadow was by his side now, trying to hold his hands down to keep him from unintentionally clawing at a vital vein or artery, because doing so would cause him real and unbearable pain once he manages to break free of his nightmare… or would it be a "daymare"?

"…_Make it stop… make it stop…_" He sobbed now weakly. "_…Please… I_ beg _of you…_"

His chest heaved, and he moaned, his eyes regaining their focus ever so slowly. He felt light, stinging scratches on his neck, and winced as he tried to bring his hand to it, but found that his hands were pinned down. A sharp thrill of panic tore right through him and he kicked at whoever was on top of him. A familiar cry of pain reached his ears and he was jolted to his senses.

Panting through his teeth, Mephiles was still on edge, his teeth bared in a weak growling display of hostility, before he realized it was Shadow pinning him down.

"You were hurting yourself…" Shadow told an utterly confused Mephiles as calmly as he could, so he didn't scare him anymore than he already was. "You were trying to tear at your throat…"

Shadow was a little surprised as he saw Mephiles shake his head slowly and respond with: "… No… I was trying to get this collar off…"

Shadow blinked.

"What collar?"

"… The one that's around my neck… right here…" He felt his hand against his neck and found nothing. "… It was right here… I swear it…"

Suddenly, his stomach tipped, and he groaned and felt his toast and coffee start to come up. He swallowed back the urge to barf again, and moaned: "…Can we go home now? I _really_ don't feel too good…"

Shadow nodded slowly, and reached and picked up Mephiles, like he was carrying a child or an injured friend, and Mephiles wrapped his arms around Shadow's neck as if he was using him as a lifeline to stay above the land of nothingness, fearing that if he fell there… he might never come back…

* * *

Okay... that was about six pages long. Whew! Poor Mephy... He's having really tough time keeping it together... 

Oh, and the fox and the dog earlier was me and my dog... as if you didn't know by now :D

I inserted Jak mainly, to help spread the word about abused animals even more. Jak is my second "rescue buddy", the first being an orange cat named Jamar. Jamar, sadly, is no longer with us, because we lost him in September due to a complication of health problems and a food allergy to corn. I have had Jak for almost a year now... I pulled him out from under a truck in last March, and he now stays with nearly wherever I go. The story RL tells to Mephy and Shadow is true in every aspect.

I find it very heartbreaking that someone would such a thing to a poor animal, especially ones that have no means of defending themsleves. I find it even more sad that a lot of animals do not recover from this, emotionally as well. Jak, had we not decided to keep him, would have been humanely euthanized at the pound because he was old, scraggily, distrusting at most people, snappish, food agressive and considered as a dog that would not be able to be rehabilitated. Even at his one week stay at the pound, no one came to claim him, until we came after the time for the original owner's to come was up. I can say that one thing about the bond between me and Jak I find truly amazing is that it was as if I supposed to find him, and him find me. Even more amazing is that we proved the impossible can be done with the right amount of care and patience... because Jak is no longer a helpless case... but the kind of dog many people would love to have, and gets the most attention from the very people that shied away from him months before.

Being that our one year "meet-a-versery" is coming on March 18th, I wanted to do the best thing I could for him, and I chose not only to make him a character in my most popular fanfic series attempt, but to also get his story to be known amongst us all, and advise you to adopt rescue pets that really _need _a loving home...

Love and Peace...

-Rae Logan


	4. Trapped

Okay... _now _I am finally writting one of the parts I wanted to get at the most... yay!

Hopefully for The All Real Numbers Symbol... this chapter will answer your questions. I haven't wanted to say what's been buggin' Mephy right away... or else the suspense would all be for not... But, I decided to shed light on it now.

Thank you for the reviews... and here's chapter 4!

Oh... and if you want to see what Jak really looks like... check my scraps on DeviantArt. I got a pic of him there. :D

* * *

Mephiles shivered feverishly as Shadow carried him down the street, before he finally felt like he would able to walk the rest of the way on his own, or at least try. His legs quivered once Shadow set him down at his request, and his instinctively threw his hand out to the side and braced himself against a bench. He took a rattling breath as Shadow watched him carefully, ready to catch him if he fell, and Mephiles willed himself to keep standing, not wanting to look like the wreck he was becoming. 

He tried to take a step, and felt like his legs were going to give out, and make him plunge to the ground. He threw his arms around Shadow's arm, slightly dragging him down with his weight, and nodded to signal to him that they could start walking. Shadow raised his eyebrows worriedly, but nevertheless, helped lead Mephiles down the street.

As they turned the corner, Mephiles groaned and shivered again.

"… I don't know why…" He murmured. "… But, I just can't seem to stop shaking… my body feels all cold… but it's a warm day out… It doesn't make any sense…"

Shadow looked down at him as he half dragged him, and saw that the shade's face had paled a little. His teeth were clenched as he held back that sick feeling he was starting to feel again, but he held a certain type of woozy determination in his eyes as he dragged his feet behind himself.

"You sure you don't want me to carry you?" Said Shadow, bracing Mephiles with his free hand. "I'm sorry, but you look like you're about to collapse at any moment now…"

Mephiles raised his tired eyes up at Shadow, and for a brief moment, considered taking up the offer. But, his pride took the better of him, and he lightly shook his head, and continued on the best he could.

Not long, Shadow suggested that they should take a break, and Mephiles, being eternally grateful, plunked down on a bench nearby, pressed his hand against his face and let loose a weary sigh.

"… What's _wrong_ with me, Shadow?" he half moaned. "… Why can't I get a hold of myself lately?"

He shivered again, and leaned his head back against the back of the bench and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, his ear twitched, and flickered as if a fly had landed on it and its tiny feet tickled the sensitive skin. He sat up abruptly, and looked around with a look of unease painted across his face.

"… What was that?" He said as Shadow's ears twitched as well, trying to catch what Mephiles had heard.

"What was what?"

"… That sound… kind of like a low whine… like it came from a machine of some kind…"

"It was probably a car or something… there's a lot of them in downtown."

Mephiles shook his head.

"… No… it's different… I don't like it… I don't like it at all… it feels me with dread somehow…"

"Maybe you're just hearing things… after all… you've been tired a lot recently…" Shadow realized that saying Mephiles was "just hearing things" was the wrong thing to tell the shady hedgehog.

"I am _not_..." He growled slowly, his lime colored eyes glinting angrily, and he would have attempted to rise, but his legs still felt weak. "I tell you… I _heard _it… I heard it and I don't like it… It's making me feel scared!"

"You just need to calm down…" Said Shadow gently, placing a hand on Mephiles' shoulder as the shadow tried to stand anyway. "You've had a rough few nights, and today was pretty bad… but you just need to calm down…"

Mephiles' growling slowed down and finally stopped altogether. He looked up at Shadow apologetically, and uttered an "I'm sorry…" to which Shadow responded with an "Its okay…"

Shadow took a hold of Mephiles' wrist and pulled him up so that they could continue their way home.

Another spiky quilled form appeared behind them, unnoticed, until it made its first move.

It collided with Shadow, who was thrown and skidded down the street, and stopped when he hit a fire hydrant. Clutching his hands to the top of his head, where he could feel bruise forming, he looked up, his red eyes blazing furiously with anger.

It was a Shadow Android, an upgraded one at that, which now seemed to have adopted Shadow's style of fighting, as well.

It sneered at him, its hands weren't blockish like the last models, and actually had fully articulated fingers. It raised a hand in front of its face and clenched its fist together, before it turned its attention to Shadow's shady counterpart.

Mephiles was frozen with terror and shock, the only part of him moving was his trembling body. He tried to say something, but could only gurgle chokingly, his eyes wide. Then he collapsed to his knees, gasping horribly and thick tears filling his eyes as the android's hand closed tightly around his wrist.

Shadow Spindashed into the side of the android, which let go of Mephiles as it was thrown down the street, knocking a tree down once it collide with it. Shadow sat crouched on the sidewalk and looked back at Mephiles fiercely, still on edge from that attack.

"C'mon!" He barked, his quills frazzled. "Move it!_ Now!_"

Mephiles was still staring at the android, which was starting to recover from the strike the half-alien hedgehog had planted on it. He almost didn't even notice Shadow closing his hand around his wrist, and yanking him on his feet roughly.

"Move it! What's _wrong_ with you!?"

And Shadow took off, towing a half-dazed, stumbling Mephiles behind him.

Something about that android had terrified Mephiles, and it wasn't because it looked like Shadow. Something about it stirred up a feeling of terror that had reminded him of something he thought he had forgotten about. He racked his mind nervously before he came across something that made his heart stop abruptly, before it began to pound furiously in his chest.

There was an android like this one in his nightmares.

It wasn't long before Mephiles started screaming again, throwing his other hand onto Shadow's wrist, and holding on tightly so he didn't get left behind.

Shadow sped into another alleyway, and pressed himself against the wall, slapping a hand over Mephiles' mouth to muffle his shrieks.

"_Quiet!_" He hissed furiously under his breath. "_Do you want to be found?!_"

Mephiles whimpered, before whispering shrilly: "_This is just like one of my nightmares!_"

"_What?_"

"_My nightmares, Shadow! My nightmares! In one, there was an android that looked like you, and it threw you down the street!_" His voice has reached past it barely audible point, and sounded like it was a breath of air instead.

"_Wait._" Hissed Shadow under his breath. "_You mean to say that you _dreamed_ this would happen?_"

"_I didn't want to…_" Mephiles cried hoarsely enough that Shadow clapped a hand back over his mouth, before Mephiles gave him a nod that he was going to try and quiet down the best he could. He gulped on air for a moment before he continued frantically, the hand free from his mouth. "_But, they just kept coming at me… and I… I…_" He trailed off for a moment, his head tilting to the side a little, and resting on his own shoulder, his eyes widening.

"_So, you can see the future, or something?_" Shadow asked him in a breath of air.

"_I have been through many timelines…I know how most outcomes turn out…I suppose this is a result of my time traveling… A price to pay for my meddling with time…_" He responded, quite bitter with himself.

A chunk of the wall was blown off at the end off at the alley. The ground shook, and the hedgehogs braced themselves against the ground. Shadow looked up. They had been found.

"Okay… if you dreamed this…" Shadow said, now not needing to keep his voice down. "What happens next?"

Mephiles ears swiveled back and flattened against his head, which he shook, and responded fearfully.

"_We lose…_"

And at that moment, Shadow was hit by a metal-like Spindash, the whole of the android's weight crashing into his body, and shaking his bones. He slammed into the brick wall of the dead end, back to it, the breath knocked sharply out of him, and he peeled off and into a pile of boxes, and moved no more.

During this, Mephiles screeched out of pure terror as he felt a hand grab him by the scruff of his neck and wrench him off his feet sharply. He tried to struggle against it, but found his body tiring from the android's grip above his neck.

"Let me go! Let me go!" He howled in fear. "Shadow! _HELP!_"

He received a brutal punch in the stomach, and his eyes, if possible, widened even more as he wheezed out all the air in his lungs and uttered a silent scream of pain as his head drooped down and hung limply as his eyes started to drift shut.

He growled faintly as his mind shut off, and he groaned defeatedly.

Somewhere in the city, two sets of ears, one black, the other, purple, twitched.

* * *

Shadow's senses were greeted by a small warm tongue licking him on the cheek. He moaned and forced his eyes to open as he became aware of the small weight on his chest. 

He found himself staring into a set of wide cloudy brown eyes, the owner of them having his ears perked.

"… Hi, Jak…" Shadow groaned as the small dog jumped off him and ran around in an excited circle. For a moment, Shadow forgot what had happened, until the pain in his head, and the battle scars of the alley brought the memory back to him like he was being hit in the face with a sack of Chaos Emeralds.

"MEPHILES!" Shadow jumped up, startling the small dog, who squeaked and ducked behind a stack of empty crates. Shadow looked around furiously, hoping he could see his shadow on the ground as well, but other than him and Jak… the alley was empty. He kicked a trashcan in frustration and cursed at the top of his voice as the metal can was thrown into the wall with the force of the kick, and dented horribly with an echoing crash.

"You've lost your friend?" A voice from earlier asked behind him. Shadow's ears perked and he spun around.

Rae Logan was hanging upside down from an old fire escape ladder, tails wrapped around the bars to anchor her. She tilted her head to the side, a look of worrying question painted on her face.

"What happened?" She asked, slipping her legs out of the rungs of the ladder, and flipping over and landing on her feet, stumbling a bit before landing on her backside, but she flashed a grin, as if she meant to do that. Jak sprinted across the alley and jumped into her lap, nudging his head under her hand to beg her to pet it. "You look like you've been caught in a fight."

Shadow explained what had happened, looking around for any clues to Mephiles' whereabouts. He saw no visible signs of a struggle, except for what he had seen happen during his consciousness.

His mind was reeling. Why had they been attacked by one of Eggman's creations? Shadow was sure neither of the two had anything the Doctor had wanted, nor had either attacked him in the past several month. In fact, the last Shadow had seen of the crazy fool was when he had crashed his commandeered motorbike into the Doctor's train, to demand some questions to be asked. Questions about Mephiles.

Shadow stopped, and a memory was fired off, and two voices, one his own, sounded in his mind.

_Who is Mephiles? And why are trying to capture him?_

_If you want to know… you should go find him yourself. But here's a hint…it's all linked to the Soleanna Disaster 10 years ago…_

_The Solaris Project…_

_Indeed. When you capture Mephiles… you must bring him to me…Then I'll tell you the truth about Solaris._

"Why did the Doctor want Mephiles?" He said out loud to himself, forgetting Rae as still there for a moment.

"Who?" She said, lifting her hand off of Jak's head, causing the dog to give a begging cough.

"Doctor Eggman…" Shadow said turning around to look at her. "Don't you know about him?"

She shook her head.

"Naw… I don't keep up with current events… they change too much… But please… explain…"

Shadow raised his eyebrows in disbelief, sighed and started to explain.

* * *

Mephiles felt a weird floating sensation all around him, as his stomach throbbed from being punched. His fur felt wet… nay… _soaked_ to the skin… 

His mind started to wake up more.

Water made stuff wet…

Water…

Mephiles eyes shot open, and he found out something that made him scream in terror.

He was suspended in a glass tank filled with the clear liquid he hated most. An oxygen mask had been placed over his mouth to allow him to breath. Jets of bubbles escaped it as he screeched and immediately, his hands shot up to his neck, feeling for something that he hoped with every ounce of him wasn't there.

But it was. An electrified collar.

At his touch, the collar shot off jolts of electricity throughout his body, and he shook and screamed with the pain of it and he felt his back hit the wall of the glass as his feet kicked and pushed him from the wall in front of him. He finally let go, and the pain stopped, aside from the dull ache in his body, his palms glowing slightly.

"That's better…" He heard an unfamiliar voice sound off behind him. "… We don't want to risk you getting hurt now… do we?"

He spun around and found someone standing there. He had never seen this man before, but the first thing he noticed was that he was shaped like an egg. He had a big orange mustache that obscured most of his face, and his eyes were hidden from blue lensed goggles, another set resting on the top of his bald head. He wore red and white gold trimmed jacket, and black boots and pants. He twisted his perfectly toothed mouth in to a wicked grin, and bowed in a way similar to Mephiles' one he had given Shadow when he had broken free of the Scepter of Darkness.

"I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik…" He said with an air of sophistication. "But my friends, mostly my enemies, call me 'Doctor Eggman'… and I have finally retrieved you as I had tried five months ago…"

Mephiles might have laughed at the guy's name… he really would have… if he could find his voice.

* * *

Omigod! Mephiles captured? Stuck in a tank? Of water? By Dr. Eggman?! What the hell brought this on? 

It's quite simple really... if you have Next Gen, or at least the cutscenes, you will remember that Eggy had the Scepter before Shadow broke it, and later told Shadow that he will answer his questions if Shadow captured Mephiles and brought him to him. But they never say _why _Eggy wanted Mephy... So I'm taking matter's into my own hands... Stay tuned to find out what :D


	5. Dark

Wow! I like that I have 8 reviews.

Okay... so I'm getting close to the plot... or am I already there? Oh well... Hope you like it.

* * *

Mephiles noticed the familiarity of his place of containment. It was so familiar… like a laboratory he once knew… from a long time ago… 

Then it hit him.

This was very similar to the one he was born in. Dark, cold and uninviting… it made the panic in him rise and hit the top completely, and he started panting through his teeth.

"You like what you see?" The Human asked. "I modeled this lab after the one in Soleanna… Their technology was very advanced, and I envied it… wouldn't you agree?"

Mephiles shook his head frantically, bringing his hands up to his head, which had begun to ache dully at his sudden memory. Dead bodies… everywhere… blood and glass… darkness…

He pressed his hands against his forehead for a moment until the ache subsided. It had been so painful… every time he thought about it… it was as if the memory was really bouncing around in his skull. He slowly lifted his eyes to stare at the egg-shaped Human, his eyebrows lowered in contempt.

"I suppose you want to know why I captured you." Eggman said, a little bored sounding.

Mephiles nodded his head up and down, eyes narrowed. Yes… he _did _want to know.

Eggman laughed.

"It's a long story really…" He snickered. "I suppose I'd have to turn the clock back about five months ago… of course… you'd know all about the concept of time travel, wouldn't you? _Mephiles the Dark?_"

Mephiles body tensed as another stream of bubbles rose from the oxygen mask. How did he know about? How did he know his name? This was totally spooky.

"You see…" Eggman continued, staring to circle the tank, Mephiles pressing himself against the glass, and using his slightly burned hands to "walk" around the inside, keeping his eyes on the Human. "… I came across Soleanna almost half a year ago, on a scouting mission to gather information about the highly sophisticated laboratories and technology the city of water had. Further in my research, I discovered records of the Soleanna Disaster that occurred ten years previous, one file stating about an entity of darkness that had been sealed and trapped inside an artifact… The Scepter of Darkness…"

Mephiles started. He was referring to Mephiles himself. But how did he know that? All existing data of the failed research experiment had been wiped from existence…

Eggman held up a small disk in his white gloved hand.

"I'm sure you're thinking where I would have found such data…" He lowered his head and grinned. "… But you see… no matter how much you try to erase something from something that holds it… the remnants of it still exist somewhere… you just have to know where to look… And sometimes… you need the knowledge of how to hack…"

Mephiles pushed off of the glass, folded his arms and tilted his head, brow furrowed as his quills and chest fluff drifted ghostly in the water. The look on his face said: "And just _how_ does this have to do with me?"

The Human laughed again.

"You really have no idea, do you?" He snorted. "We once shared a common goal: Destroying Sonic the Hedgehog, though for different reasons. However, your encounter with Shadow, Omega, and Rouge has changed your motive for life, and therefore… changed you."

Mephiles eyes darkened. He could already say that he despised this Human for many reasons, and they just kept piling up by the second. He would try to turn into mist and slip through any cracks in the tank… but he knew that the water would disperse his molecules throughout the entire volume of it, making hard to pull himself back together. He cursed under his breath, a small stream of bubbles rising to the surface.

Eggman had known that… that's why he had contained Mephiles there to begin with.

"I've been keeping a close watch on you… waiting for the right time to take you back… when you had _weakened…_"

_Wrong _thing to say.

Mephiles planted his feet onto the glass behind him, and pushed into the glass in front, scraping his claws against it, eyes flashing madly and his head against he glass as he tried to use force to get himself through the glass. He wanted to break out and tear this guy apart with his bare claws.

Eggman snickered again.

"I see you still have your anger…" He said as Mephiles eyes widened in fury. "Good… that'll be useful later…" He walked over to the console, and retrieved something in a compartment. It sparkled with a kind of crimson brilliance, and awoke a kind of lustful hunger in the shadow. His rage melted away, and now he spread his fingers across the glass, letting loose an insane little, barely inaudible squeal of longing pleasure that vibrated throughout his very being. The fingers etched thin scratches up and down the glass, and he tilted his head, his narrowed eyes scanning the beautiful edges of the mysteriously stunning power gem with a longing desire to wrap his fingers around it, and use it to his advantage.

Then his eyes widened. He gasped harshly: it seemed he had lost himself for a moment, as a river of bubbles leaving the mask rose to the top. His body trembled at the laugh he had uttered. It felt detached to him, and he hardly believed it came from himself. It was as if Dark had…

Mephiles eyes flattened as another voice sounded from his mouth, speaking to himself in a deepened and darker version of his own, as it rumbled from his throat, though he was sure only he could hear it in the seemingly soundproof water prison.

"…_I'm baaack_…"

Mephiles moaned in sick fear, clawing his sharply clawed fingers against his chest. Dark had broken loose…

Eggman grinned. That's what he wanted.

* * *

"So, you say this Doc Egg-guy dude, took your friend… and you need to find him before he gets hurt?" 

Shadow nodded, happy that the fox had finally gotten it. It had taken about twenty minutes to explain everything to her, and some parts she just didn't seem to get. She had informed him that she has either/and/or ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome, and some things where easier to understand than others. Halfway into the conversation, he has half tempted to just ditch her and start his way to find Mephiles on his own, but he wanted to borrow her dog to track him down. She kind of needed to know this before either left, as she refused to let him leave with him, with only a "promise to give him back…"

"Where Jak goes… _I_ go…" She told him, stamping her foot down. "If you take him with you… I go with, too…"

"I don't think that's a good idea…"

"_Watch me…_" Her fur shifted a shade of indigo as her tails puffed out. Her eyed shifted as well. "_Leave me behind and see what happens…_" She dared.

Shadow was taken aback by the fox's loyalty to her dog. She treated Jak as if he was another Mobian, referring and speaking to him as if he was her equal.

"_Right, Jak?_" She gave a quick nod of her head to the dog, who returned the gesture. "Jak says I come too…" She translated, ignoring Shadow's look of bewilderment, before the rolled his eyes.

"Fine… but, he's your problem… and neither of you are mine… Got it?"

"Fair…"

* * *

Mephiles wailed loudly, pulling at his ears, yanking them far enough down that they were level with his eyes. He ignored the pain from their abuse as he continued to yank at them. 

Dark had broken through.

Dark was back.

Dark could get control if he tried…

His tongue felt like it was moving on its own.

"_Now… now… Mephy… that won't do…_" He said. "_I use those ears too, Y'know…_"

"_Shut up!_" Mephiles screamed, the jet of bubbles streaming from the oxygen mask. "Shut up! No, you don't! These are mine, they're_ my_ ears! This is _my _mouth! This is _my _body! Get out of my head! Get out! Get out! _Get out!"_

The voice laughed uproariously; as if he found this so amusing, he could hardly contain himself.

"_You mean _our _head?" _He chuckled. "_Let's face it… I'm you… and I'll always be here…_"

Mephiles started slamming his head against the glass, wanting to either shake the "demon" loose… or lose consciousness… whichever came first. It was surprising to Eggman how hard and fast Mephiles was able to hit his head against the glass under water, as movements were usually slowed down because of the water.

He frowned… his plans didn't call for Mephiles to hurt himself.

He ran his fingers against the console, and stopped once they touched a dial. He turned it clockwise, watching Mephiles' eyes shoot wide open, and the shade's hands flew to his neck, where the collar had sent off a powerful electrical discharge that shook him to his very core. The sparks of voltage shot up and down the shady hedgehog, some of his crystals glowing from it, and some sparks shooting off his quills and disappearing into the water. He pushed away from the glass as a torrent of bubbles streamed out of the mask with an almost audible scream, before he remembered he shouldn't have touched the collar, and wrenched his hands off of it, the palms and fingertip stinging something horrible. The pain stopped almost immediately, and he was left drifting up and down in the tank, his muscles quivering and twitching as Dark let loose a stream of curses, having felt that as well. Mephiles want panting in his mind, as Dark had control of his tongue at the moment.

"Like I said…" Eggman said icily, eyebrows lowering over the tops of his goggles, his teeth clenched in a frown. "We don't want to risk you hurting yourself now, _do we?_"

Mephiles shot him a hostile glare through squinting eyes. He hadn't wanted to kill anything for a long time now… but, if he ever did… this Human would be first on his list.

"Now… as for my demands…" Eggman started. "… I'm going to need you…"

* * *

"Can we take a break, now?" Rae whined, Jak staying a little in front of her as the three walked. 

Shadow had his hand clenched around his ear tight enough to crimp it in some places, and he shook his head forcefully. This fox was starting to get on his nerves.

"Can't we at least grab something to eat on the way? It's already past lunch… and I haven't eaten…"

Shadow spun around, stopping Rae in her tracks as he shot her a death stare.

"_No…_"

Rae's eyes sparkled with tears for a moment, her lip between her teeth.

"But… but… I _have_ to eat more often than most people…" She explained, her voice gone small. "… I have an accelerated metabolism due to my meds, so I burn energy faster…"

"Meds?"

"My ADHD meds…" She said uneasily, finding that the hedgehog's red eyes were beginning to scare her right now. "They're basically the kinds of drugs most junkies would love to get their hands on, and even used right… they burn calories and energy…" She held her arms out to show off her figure for a moment. "… That's why I'm so skinny… I eat a lot… but, I never really gain weight… I have the model's metabolism, and I don't need to do much to keep it at that…"

Her eyes sparkled again as Shadow leaned in her face, and she let out a little whimper. Jak stopped, and bore what he had left to call teeth, his fur standing on end as he fixed his cloudy eyes on Shadow.

"What's up with Hell Dog?" Said Shadow, nodding his head slightly to the left at the mentioned dog.

"He thinks you're trying to hurt me…" She explained, voice still small. "He thinks you're 'bad' right now, and wants you to back off…"

"You're kidding… what's he gonna do to me? _Gum_ me?"

"No… but those teeth in the back are pretty sharp… he can draw blood if he can get your fingers in between them…" RL explained as Jak's pupils shifted to a cloudy gray. "And if his eyes do _that_… he's lost himself in a flashback…"

Jak barked and took a running jump at Shadow, and clamped his teeth onto the metal of Shadow's hover skates. Shadow was about to either kick or shake him off roughly, before Rae said menacingly: "You hurt him at all, and I will _personally_ make sure it'll be your last time doing so!"

Rae waited for a moment on purpose to walk over and pry Jak off, Jak hitting his head against her nose before his pupils cleared up. Rae looked up angrily.

"If you want to use him to track down your friend…" She said, blue eyes narrowing, before switching back to purple. "… I suggest you be nice, or otherwise, I'm outta here… and please…" She added, her tone softening a little. "… Don't try me… I actually want to help…"

"Why? You just met us _today…_"

Rae giggled, any remnants of her anger melted away completely.

"I actually kinda like you guys…" She explained as Jak glared at Shadow in her arms. "I could tell you guys were nice by the way Jak was messing with you two earlier…"

"He could have hurt us!"

"Were his pupils gray?"

"I… uh…" Shadow thought back a bit, and then shook his head. "Um… no… not really…"

"See… he was just playing… and he doesn't play like that unless he likes you… he does that with Pammy, too…"

"Pammy?"

"She's my cousin's cat. Jak met her where she was just a tiny kitten, and at first, we thought he would try to hurt her…" She explained, smiling small and with a laugh. "But, he threw us all for a loop, and within minutes, was letting _her _chase and catch _him_…"

"You sure he wasn't just a chicken?"

"Naw… he chased her back, and they did this all day for the first night. She's a gorgeous cat and she's bigger than him now… but, he still lets her tackle him, and touches noses after each chase game…" She touched her nose to Jak's for a moment, and received a lick on the muzzle before continuing. "It's almost like his heart was melted by her… I've got a picture of the first time they met. Wanna see?"

Only partly interested, because he was aware they were wasting time, he nodded.

She reached into one of her tails and extracted a small, black brick shaped slide phone that Shadow recognized as a Chocolate, the older model. Before she switched to the "pix" setting, Shadow glimpsed a picture of a fat orange cat with a cute look on his face as the wallpaper. Rae hit the Nav Key a few times, Shadow spotted several pictures of the orange cat, many with another cat or too, before she came across a picture of Jak staring at a small, longhaired calico kitten, who was sitting in a box, staring right back. Both looked curious, and leaned so close to each other, that they could have touched noses.

"That was the first night…" She slid the phone closed. "Let's get going… maybe we could grab something at the store… it's quicker, and I can grab a Slushie, with some Honey Mustard Pringles… those are great on the go…"

"Who was that orange cat? I saw you had a lot of pictures of him… you must really like him…" Shadow tried to strike up a conversation with her.

Rae's foot stopped in the air, and she seemed to just freeze. Jak looked up at her worriedly, as her eyes quivered before she took a deep breath and put her foot down, her back turned to the hedgehog, and her voice low and dead serious.

"… His name was Jamar… I called him 'Jamy', and he started his life with us as my brother's cat. He was also a rescue, and he was my best buddy in so many ways. He also had a few health problems, and an allergy to corn. He was only three years old when he died in my arms last September, and it took me ten minutes for it sink in completely… I actually thought I could bring him back if I kept getting the ants out of his fur… but, even though I read all those books on cat emergencies, and could recite every single procedure without err… this was the one time I couldn't remember a thing…" Her voice quivered before she took a deep breath and got a hold of herself. "… He didn't go peacefully. We buried him under my old window he used to hang out under, and planted a palm tree like the one he hid under at our door. I planted mums and daffodils in his colors, a lambsear that was fuzzy, and a succulent that looked like a rose, and turned out to have orange flowers when it bloomed. I spent all day making the headstone, and now… we have a garden for him at our house. He was meant to be a ratter, and not as an indoor cat… but in his short time, captured all our hearts instead. Mom said "No more cats, please…" and I agree… I don't want another one for a long time…"

She sniffled, and wiped her nose with the back of her hand, and said a little more cheerily: "But, sulking about this won't help, and he'd want me to move on and be happy, as long as I never forget him… so I've done so, and always visit him on the side of the house when I can, watering and keeping track of his flowers. He was truly a blessing in his short time and I can say I've learned a lot from him..." She took a step forward. "Let's go!"

Shadow hesitated before he put his foot down. He was moved by how much this fox cared about something that didn't even belong in the same category of race as her. She not only treated them as Chao, but as her own family.

He smiled smally, and took a step forward, before taking a quick sprint to catch up with her.

* * *

Okay... so Just so you know... The story with Jamy is true. 

I hope Mephy can last against Dark...


	6. A Proposal

I feel like this is turning dark...

Oh, well...

Hope you like this chapter...

* * *

Mephiles snarled under breath, and shook his head.

"I see..." Eggman said like he was having to explain this to a child, his hand touching the dial, lightly. "But, you really aren't in a position to negotiate… you see…" He gave a dial a slight turn, Mephiles twitched at the buzzing sting he received. "… _I_ have control right now, and if you want the shocking to stop…" He gave the dial a quarter turn, Mephiles now fighting the urge to grab the collar and rip it off as the buzz changed to a shock. "… I suggest you do what I say… _okay?_"

Mephiles clenched his hands together into fists, and narrowed his eyes, no nod or shake of the head. Eggman turned the dial a bit more, and Mephiles jolted and started to nod his head up and down to get him to stop. Eggman grinned.

"Good boy…"

* * *

Rae pocketed her chips in her tail, having been sure to pick up some snacks for Jak, as well. She licked at the grooves of her teeth, searching for any traces of the chips and their flavor in between them 

"I _can't_ fly…" She told Shadow, who had asked that a minute ago. "What makes you think I can?"

"You have twin tails… can't you spin them to fly?"

RL shook her head.

"Naw… It requires too much energy and my body mass isn't small enough to even allow me to hover… even if the tails spin fast enough… with my body, it's just scientifically impossible…"

"Then what _can _those tails do? Besides twitch?"

Rae looked behind her, and waved her tails randomly for a moment before looking back.

"They help me speed up a bit, granted I get slowed down some before it works. They also help me float. They can catch enough air between the fur to let me stay at the surface. Can't sink though…"

Shadow heaved a sigh.

"Guess we keep walking, then…"

* * *

"I'm going to drain the tank and let you out… _if_ you do as I say…" 

Mephiles waited for the water to drain, his legs giving out some once his feet touched the platform. He braced his hand on the bottom of the tank as the glass was lifted off by a hovering machine. Once he had a clear shot, he wrenched the oxygen mask from his mouth and threw it down in rage.

"Try keeping _me _underwater, _will you?!_" He barked furiously and leapt at Eggman, claws out, teeth gleaming and bared. The Human casually turned the dial with a yawn, and Mephiles dropped to the ground, screaming as surges of sparks and volts jumped off his body and quills, the crystal tips glowing brightly. He forced himself to keep his hands away from the collar, the dull sting in them reminding him good.

"Let's try this again…" Eggman turned it down just a notch, still enough to burn at Mephiles' neck. "Get up… and _stay…_"

"… I'm not…" The jolt caused him to change his mind swiftly. "Okay! Okay! _I'm up!_"

Mephiles glared at him icily as he pushed off the ground. He bared his teeth in a weak growl, his chest heaving up and down through his deep and heavy pants of breath.

"… But _don't_ think I'm… gonna do what you say so easily… I _will_ fight back…"

"I figured that much… That why I'm not after _you_, per se…"

Mephiles' narrowed eyes widened in surprise.

"What?"

Eggman balanced the Emerald carefully in his hand; Mephiles' eyes began to wander on their own as the power gem shifted from side to side. Mephiles blinked and forced his eyes to the ground.

"I'm more after… the _other _you…"

"_Dark?_"

"What_ ever_ you call him… I need _him_…"

Mephiles shifted his eyes up quickly to stare him in the face.

"… You're not going to make me do-" He stopped once Eggman's hand hovered over the dial again. He gritted his teeth, growled heatedly, flattened his ears, and crouched down submissively, knowing he would have been zapped again if he had finished that sentence.

"It's seems like I already _can_ make you do anything…" Eggman grinned darkly. "… I wonder what else you'll do…" He added as an afterthought. His hand turned the dial slightly again, and Mephiles howled in pain.

* * *

"So… how do we find the base?" Rae asked, thoroughly confused. "I mean… if it's _hidden_…" 

"He's not really as smart as he plays it off as…" Shadow said. "He always loses, and he _always_ gets found…"

"Well… it that _always_ happens…" Rae used the emphasis the same way to help prove her point. "Isn't that a reason for him to be better next time?"

"I suppose… but, I don't think that matters…"

"So, how do we find the base?"

"Find a trail… track it down…"

"Ah… Okay…"

* * *

"_Just stop it…_" Dark hissed viciously with Mephiles' tongue, Mephiles' eyes widening at the action. "_I'll have you know that hurts…_" 

"I can't really help it if 'Mephy' wants to fight against it…" Eggman answered the "demon" coolly. "If you want it to stop… you'll have to make him give in…"

"_Fair…_"

Mephiles choked on his breath as his hands twitched on their own. His ears lifted without his say so, and without his control… he stood up.

"_He fights against me pretty well… He's fought me with his sorry excuse for 'free will'… but, I've forced him to the back of our… I mean _my _mind…_" The mouth twisted into a sharply fanged grin, his eyes glinting madly and the teal striped, crystal quilled head tilted down as lime green eyes rose upward. "…_ It's good to be back…_" Dark purred deeply, the sound rolling of his tongue effortlessly.

Had Mephiles had _any _control right now… he would have liked to scream.

* * *

"Are we there yet?" 

"No…"

"Are we there yet?"

"No…"

"Are we there yet?"

"No…"

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"_No_."

"Are we there yet?"

"_NO!_" Shadow wheeled around eyes wide and furious. Rae and Jak's ears flattened against their heads.

Rae backed off a bit, tails twitching nervously.

"Geez… _Sorry_… I'm just a little bored…" She said as her ears lifted a little.

"This is a rescue mission…"Shadow said testily. "It's not supposed to be entertaining…"

"Didn't say I wanted it to be…"

Shadow opened his mouth to speak, closed it and shook his head, then turned back around. Rae scurried behind him, Jak in her arms.

"Are we there yet?"

Shadow heaved a sigh through his teeth.

"No…"

* * *

Dark took a slow step forward, head kept low as his eyes stayed fixed on the Emerald in longing gaze of lustful hunger, his arms hanging limply, a wicked little smirk painted across his pale muzzle. 

"_So… you say you _need _me for something?_" He brought his head up slowly, tilting it side to side as he did. "_What are we talking about in terms of what _I _get?_" He rasped.

"That depends… what do you have in mind?"

Dark brought his hand up to his face, and bit down on a nail in thought.

"_For starters…_" He frowned, and growled venomously. "_You can get this stupid collar off of me…_"

Eggman stared for a moment before breaking out into laughter, Dark glaring at him dead seriously.

"You're _joking_ right?" The Human snorted. "I'm sorry, but for my own safety, the collar stays…"

"_Then don't zap me…_"

"Only if you don't give me a reason to…"

"_Fair… Then, second… I'd like that Emerald…_" Dark reached a clawed hand out and closed his fingers around air, clawing at nothing in particular. "_I want to use it, abuse its power, and twist time itself…_"

Eggman raised an eyebrow, which twitched.

"We'll see…"

"_Again… Fair… Thirdly… I'd like Shadow dead…_" Dark ignored Mephiles' cries of protest in his mind. "_Yes… dead… He's been too much of a nuisance to me for the past half a year…"_

_That's not true! _Mephiles said in his mind, at least glad he still could something. _Shadow is my friend! I won't let you! I won't! I won't! I won't!_

"_Quiet, you…_" Dark whispered under his breath, ignoring Eggman bewildered stare.

_I won't let you! I won't let you hurt him!_

'Mephy… It's not a matter if you'll let me or not…' Dark spoke to his good side inwardly. 'In fact… you have no control now… It's_ all_ me now…'

Mephiles' frantic cry of protest echoed throughout Dark's head, the "demon" having to place a clawed hand to his forehead as it bounced inside his skull.

"_Little beast won't shut up!_" He hissed headedly, digging his claws into his quills, and pulling a few out. He examined a crystal shard in his hand, before dropping it to the ground, and stepping on it, the shard cracking and shattering under his foot.

"_Do we have a deal?_"

Eggman hesitated, half tempted to crank the dial up to the highest setting out of his uneasiness of what he might have gotten himself into. He really should think these things out more; this was probably going to be the fourth time in a row a plan might blow up in his face.

True, he often found himself at ends with Shadow as well… but he never really wanted him _dead_.

"_I said… Do we have a deal?_"

If Eggman had ears like hedgehogs, foxes, bats, or cats… he would have flattened them.

* * *

"Are we-" 

"_NO!_" Shadow yelled, grabbing his ears roughly, and yanking them down. "No! No! No! NO! We are _not_ there yet!"

Rae Logan scratched her head and waited for him to calm down, his ears springing back into place as she extracted her container of chips from her tails.

"I was _going_ to ask…" She said through a bite of Honey Mustard Pringle. "… If we were able to hold our own against this Egg-guy…" She swallowed as she picked Jak a treated out of the plastic baggie in her other tail, and handed it to him, Jak biting it in half with one bite. "I mean, besides you being tough… I'm just a kid, and Jak's an old dog…"

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen, Eighteen in June…"

"So you're almost an adult…"

"_I wish…_"

Jak chomped on his treat with his back teeth

"…"

"I won't get to really live by myself… I need parental guidance…"

"Ever try to leave the nest?"

"And fall flat on my face? Hell, no… I'm just going to be a kid for a long time… and I can't fight it…"

Jak finished and looked up, begging for another treat.

"You're… weird…"

"Thank you!"

Jak frowned at being ignored.

Shadow raised an eyebrow, and turned away. Rae replaced her chip canister and treat bag in her tails, and sighed.

"Are we there yet?"

One could hear the scream a mile away.

* * *

"_I really only want the Emerald, and for Shadow to be dead…_" Dark whispered, eyes glued to the gem as he made another unconscious step for it. 

Eggman looked worried now. _What have I done?_ He half groaned to himself, mentally shaking his head.

"_I could do it easily, too…_" Dark murmured contentedly. "_He would not see it coming, nor feel it… but, then… where's the fun in_ that?" Dark chuckled to himself, completely amused at the thought of it. "_I'd prefer to let him suffer… wouldn't you agree, Mephy?_"

Mephiles didn't answer. He was scared in his own mind, trapped by an inner demon, who now wanted to kill his best friend.

Dark knew what Mephiles was thinking, though.

'He's not your best friend…' Dark whispered. 'He doesn't even _like_ you…'

_That's not true… he helped me today…_

'Helped you, huh? Then why are you here? Captured? Trapped in our own head?'

……………

'Thought so…'

_You're not me…_

'What?'

_Y-you're not me…_

'Hate to break it to you, but I am…'

_You're not… You're not… You're not…_

Eggman watched anxiously as the crystalline hedgehog had fallen silent, as if caught in a trance of some kind. His lime colored eyes half closed, his head tilted, and arms hanging limply in front of him. He suddenly blinked, and smirked wickedly as expression became more insane.

"_I take it back… keep the Emerald… I just want Shadow dead…_"

Only Dark heard the howl of misery echo so chillingly in his mind… and all he could say… was that he liked it…

* * *

I dunno... did I make Dark _too _evil... or not enough?

* * *


	7. Slip Up

Okay... you have no idea the kinds of problems I went through for this...

I had to finish my senior porfolio today, turn it in, go to night school, and have to deal with faulty internet... but its here now... woo-hoo!

I'm kinda sad at how I only have 10 reviews, when the last story had 50... is anybody on anymore?

Well... I'm keeping you away from the fic... sorry, and here ya go.

* * *

Dark threw his head back in a raucous cackle of pure malice, its tone of insanity ringing chillingly off the walls, causing shivers to run through him as Mephiles' fear was felt inside. He held his claws up, showing off his potentially lethal capabilities, as he smirked once again, but kept his distance from Eggman, just close enough to cause worry in the Human's mind. 

"…_Just give me the word…_" He breathed, his voice but a whisper, the kind that if heard in your ear in the dead of night, would make your heart stop for a moment. "_… and I'll do it… I've been watching his every attack… I know how to counter… I can even send them back… He won't stand a chance… No… he won't…_"

He waited, his head tilted in anticipation, tongue pressed up against his teeth, his breathing slow and even, his body bobbing up and down in tune with his breaths.

"… _Just give me the word…_"

* * *

"Are we-" 

Shadow wheeled around, and Rae hastened to finish.

"_DeepInDowntownWestopolis?_" She finished in a quick stream of words the moment Shadow's red eyes glared, her ears flipping back. Shadow backed off a bit, and sighed.

"Yes… you really should get out more, or you would have known without having to ask…"

"I get out plenty. I go to School, the park, the mailbox, the store (comics and food), Wal-Mart…"

She drawled on, and on, and on, and on, before she lost track, and slumped forward with a sigh.

"I do believe my train of thought derailed at the station…" She said in a fake British accent. "… But, thankfully… there were _no_ casualties…"

"You do accents?"

"Aye… can also make churring and purring sounds… and adopt the tone of just about anyone…"

"… I don't believe it…"

"No really… I can even quote just about everyone on "Robot Chicken" really well, even the nerd kid…" She smiled and took a not so deep breath, but Shadow clapped a hand over her mouth, causing her to look a little confused. Her eyes followed his, and she wrapped her tails around her dog as the two were pulled into an alleyway by the hedgehog, all three pressed against the wall.

"…_ Shadow Androids…_" He whispered as Rae and Jak looked at him questioningly. "_… They look and fight like me… but, they _aren't _me… that means they _will _attack you…_"

He cursed when they had been spotted, and push the fox and the dog behind a stack of crates.

"If they come at you… _run_…" He said quickly, before jumping into the middle of the alley to stand his ground.

Rae and Jak watched as Shadow was hit with a Spindash, but he recovered quickly, and in a flash, barely enough time to blink, he appeared behind the android, and sent a kick to its back. The android landed with a crash, but was suddenly crouched down, and swept its feet under Shadow's, causing him to lose his balance and fall on his back.

Rae watched as she cowered behind the boxes, Jak wrapped in her tails to keep him from yipping. Her eyes danced back and forth between the two as they fought, and as she tried her best to hide.

Jak wormed his way out of the tails a bit, and squeaked.

Rae's ears flattened as the android spotted them and she sunk down behind the crates, though she knew she was screwed. Barking Jak's name under her breath, she crawled alongside the wall a bit, and pushed between two trashcans.

She wasn't there long before her "shield" was picked up and she found herself staring up at the seemingly towering android. Uttering a squeak like Jak's, Rae kept her hold on her dog, and plowed her way through some more crates, numerous items spilling onto the ground as some boxes shattered.

Rae looked back for a moment, and smacked into something solid, and was knocked off her feet, her tails shifting Jak out of harm's way. Looking up a little dazed, she felt her heart sink enough to steal her breath away for a moment.

She had run into a dead end.

She cursed under her breath at being so stupid, and stood up to pick up Jak and wrap her arms around him, hugging him protectively to her chest as the android neared.

Shadow saw this and looked around quickly for something to be of aid. He suddenly noticed one of the boxes Rae had smashed on her flight of panic, were one of Eggman's weapon containers, though the partially rotted wood and peeling paint meant it had probably been forgotten.

To his joy, he was relieved to see two of the toy-like pistols, the ones that shot red lasers. He scooped them up and shot one, aiming at the android's hard drive in its head. He was slightly off, but somehow managed to split a vital wire for motor movements.

"Here…" He said, tossing the other to Rae as she stared at the sparking machine on the ground before her with wide eyes. "… You might need this later…"

Rae caught it, after fumbling with it in the air pathetically, Jak on the ground, sniffing the android.

"… But I _hate _guns…" Rae whined, holding it out at arms length. "I'm a lousy shot, too…"

Just then, the android swiped its claws at Jak, who jumped back, barely missing the claws that swung through the air, and was relived to find his nose, as well as the rest of him, safe.

"Son of a-" Rae growled as her fur and eyes shifted a dark blue, and she pointed the gun at the android. A shot was fired, and the machine shut down as its hard drive was blasted at point blank. Rae stood there for a moment, panting angrily as the gun remained pointed at the android, before her color switched back, and she blinked innocently.

"Like I said… I'm a lousy shot…" She said. Shadow stared at her disbelievingly, so she explained. "I was aiming for its hand… the one it tried to swipe Jak with…" She giggled nervously, eyes shining like watery gems, as if she had been scared that she had done that. "You so do _not _want to tick me off… I can lose it, because I don't handle rage too well…"

Shadow nodded slowly, wondering if he underestimated her abilities maybe just a little.

"So… wanna hear my Nerd impression now?"

Shadow sighed. Aw… who was he kidding?

* * *

"…_ I'm waiting…_" Dark said, a little impatiently. "_… Just give the word…_" 

Eggman twitched his fingers over the dial. He didn't like how this was turning out. This was not part of the original plan. Dark lifted his gaze to the Human's hand and frowned. In a blink of an eye, and a swirl of purple mist, he vanished.

Eggman jumped when he felt a clawed hand rest gently on his own, and lightly wrap around it, prying it up from the control. He whirled around, and found himself nose-to-nose with a mildly annoyed Dark, who was sitting on his feet on the console's keyboard, eyes half closed as if he found this to be getting old really fast.

"_I thought the deal was if I didn't give you reason to…_" He scowled at him. "_… You weren't going to zap me…_"

"Uhm…"

"…_ I'm saying this because your hand was pretty close to giving this a turn… whether it be by accident… or on purpose… I can't really say…_" He leaned a little, pulling Eggman's hand forward a bit as well. "_… _Do _try to be more careful… I won't be responsible for any-_" He gave the hand a tight squeeze, enough to make it hurt some. "_Accidents that could result from such a… _foolish_ mistake…_" He let the hand go, and Eggman drew it back quickly, rubbing it with his fingers as Dark grinned maliciously.

Mephiles was just a voice in his head, unable to make any tangible actions, except by voice. But even at that, it wasn't very helpful… given that Dark ignored him pretty well.

Still, Mephiles tried at it the best he could. He tried reason. He tried logic. He tried trickery, talking, pleading, protesting, and even… crying.

And still… it didn't seem to work.

Mephiles was now stuck wondering if Dark was really the real "Mephiles", forced back because he had let his guard down, and if Mephiles himself was really just a spark of sincere thought that managed to overcome him for a while. Was Dark really Mephiles? Or were they just two separate beings, trapped in the same body?

_And…_ Mephiles thought as he felt the remaining threads of his hope flicker away like a dying flame _… Am I really the good one? Or am I just a quirk in his personality? Do I…_ really_ exist?_

_I think… I feel… I breathe… I care… _His voice started to strengthen as he sorted it out on his own. _I have friends… a past… a present… and a future… I have a life… and I live… so I _am _real… but if I _wasn't_ the real Mephiles… who would I be? Would I still be Mephiles, or would my name be different? If so… what would it be? Would it be a name I can display proudly? Or feel its heavy past drag me down every time I hear it? Am I just like Shadow once was, simply lost without a real clue to who I could be? Who I _could _have been? What I'm meant to be? My purpose? My legacy? Am I to be of great importance in the future, or will I be forgotten once I'm gone? If the experiment ten years ago went differently… would I be different… or would I not exist at all? If I wasn't sealed away… would I have turned out bad to begin with? Was I born evil? Or was I misled? Was it all a mistake? Was I really meant to _be_ a mistake? Who am I, really?_

Mephiles thought about this long and hard, knowing Dark wouldn't answer him anyway. He probably just wasted his breath, hoping. A mental sigh was thrown out to no one in particular as Mephiles drew his own conclusion.

_I am… lost… that's what I am… just… lost…_

And that was the one thought that kept his hold on himself for the next while.

* * *

"But, seriously… how to we find the base?" Rae was prodding the android with her foot, watching the sparks shoot off it with childish interest. 

"Most of the Doctor's mechs have the base co-ordinates programmed into them…" Shadow explained. "… So they can find the base after their missions…"

"I see…" Rae stepped back, scratching her head. "But… problem… Didn't I, like y'know… _shoot_ the hard drive?"

"There's a possibility you missed that piece of data…"

"Chances being?"

"About a one in five chance…"

"I'd say fifty-fifty…"

"Why?"

"Either I did… or I didn't… it might lean a little more to one side… but, it's either 'yes' or 'no' either way…"

"That little glass of yours is always half full, huh?"

"What little glass?"

"Never mind… can you hack?"

"Like…_ computer _hacking hack?"

"Yeah…"

"Barely… I know how to access lost files to a certain extent… but, I'm no master hacker… I just find that a big no-no…"

"But can you?"

Rae sighed as Jak pawed at her leg.

"I'll try…"

* * *

Dark's ear twitched at a sound from the monitor behind him. 

"_What was that?_"

"…"

"…"

"Eh… I think the base has been located…" Eggman said, sounding very small.

"_By?_"

"… I would have a guess it could either be Sonic… or…" Eggman let himself trail off to not finish on purpose.

But Dark wasn't going to let him. He planted his hands on the console's keyboard and leaned forward into the Human's face.

"_Go on…_" He urged darkly.

Eggman still didn't answer.

"…_ It's Shadow, huh?_"

Silence.

"…_ I knew it…_" Dark looked away, letting a depraved little grin grace his muzzle.

"Why?"

Dark looked back, frustration etched into his face, as his ears laid back.

"…_ Because…_"

"…?"

"_Because I can…_"

* * *

"Okay… now I can just upload the co-ordinates into my phone, and it'll map it out for us…" 

Rae looked at the screen after a half a minute and frowned.

"That's pretty far…" She said, taking her container of chips from her tails and chomping down a few.

"It's mapped out though, right?"

Rae nodded because her mouth was full.

"Okay… lemmie see…" He snatched up her phone, Rae making an impulsive swipe at it to take it back, but withdrew once her hand caught up with her mind. "Yeah… I can do it…" He said, a little to himself.

"¿Qué?"

"Ever heard of 'Chaos Control'?"

Head shook.

"It allows me to control time and space… I can bend time to get from point A to point C, without having to get to point B…"

He half expected her to ask again, this time to explain the explanation. But she threw him for a loop.

"Like 'Wrinkling'?" Her eyes lighting up.

"Huh?"

Rae explained about a fantasy book she had read in Elementary, which featured a concept of time manipulation like what Shadow had said.

The hedgehog shrugged before taking hold of one of her tails.

"Grab Jak… we don't want to leave him behind…" He told her, and she nodded and wrapped her other tail around her dog, his nose touching the android.

"Ready?"

"I think so…"

"Chaos… Control!"

And in a blue flash, they were gone.

* * *

Dark giggled with amusement as a bright flash happened before him, and the hedgehog, fox, and dog appeared. Rae dropped down on her rump for a moment, her eyes slightly crossed as she waited for the after effects to wear off. Jak pulled his nose away from the android, and almost grinned to himself. 

Eggman having long hightailed it out of there, Dark made his own introduction, clearing his throat.

Shadow looked up and found himself staring at a set of murderous green eyes, staring back at him.

"Mephiles?"

"… _Not exactly…_"

"_Dark?_" Shadow said even louder as Dark slid off the console casually, flexing his fingers into a fist.

"_You catch on quick…_" He said as he got ready to spring. "_Let's see if you can _move_ as quickly…_"

And in a swirl of darkness and mist… Dark launched himself at Shadow in the form of a Spindash, his crystal shard quills tearing into Shadow's skin.

Shadow yelped in surprise and Chaos Snapped right behind him, impulsively bringing his fists down on Dark's head. Dark cratered into the ground as Shadow's feet touched down.

"What was _that _for?!" He yelled, hoping to get to Mephiles and help send Dark back.

Swiftly, Dark was on his feet and in a breath of air, slammed his body into Shadow's again, the ebony hedgehog thrown back, but, back flipped onto his feet, his hover skates allowing him to just slide back the rest of the way, until physics kicked in.

Shadow blinked, and Dark was gone again. Shadow scanned his eyes around the room, Rae Logan giving a nervous little wave to catch his attention, before she pointed behind him.

"_I always _hated _you, you know…_" The chilling voice sounded off in his ear. "_I can't really say why… I just do…_"

Shadow wheeled around to find himself staring into nothing but red rimmed, venomously green eyes, the owner's breath washing over his face, Dark being just nose-to-nose with him. Dark raised his left hand and closed it as a purple ray of light formed in his claws.

"_You like? I believe you will find it very similar to your own Chaos Spear… I call it Dark Spike… basically the same… just with my chaos signature instead…_"

Shadow lifted his foot and planted it on Dark's stomach and pushed him away with a great amount of force. Dark slammed into the computer console, the monitor blinking off.

"_You little…_" He couldn't find any words for what he wanted to say, so he growled and blasted off in another Spindash, Shadow doing likewise.

With a sickening sounding **THWACK**, both hedgehog's were thrown back, Shadow landing on top of Rae, who yelped at the sudden weight on her, and Dark was thrown through one of the lab's walls, a**SPLASH **was heard followed by a scream.

Shadow was jolted out of his daze at the sound and sped off to the source. At the hole in the wall, he stopped in horror.

Dark had fallen in an escape hatch that was used for underwater escaping, meaning it was filled with water. And Mephiles couldn't swim.

At the sudden terror of drowning overtook him, he was forced back to the back of his mind as Mephiles broke through as his terrifying fear of large bodies of water overwhelmed him.

He screamed out for help, his hands both splashing, and reaching up as Shadow leaned over the edge and reached, also afraid, because of his inability to swim, too. Both hands came close, but neither made contact.

Mephiles started to sink deeper, and he screeched out more frantic pleas, almost driven mad with fright.

"Help me! _Please, _somebody! Shadow! Don't let me drown! _Don't let me die!_"

Rae Logan recovered from her being used as a landing pad, and shook her head to clear it. Her ears twitched at the sound of the terrified hedgehog, and the splashes of water. She jumped up, and peered into the next room, and gasped at what she saw.

"_Shadow! Shadow! Please! Help me! Please, help!_"

Rae hesitated as she felt something fire off in her mind, something very similar to this… very much so…

She gasped again as she saw him go under a little before forcing himself up, but sinking back down. Rae sped to the water's edge, and tried to catch a hold of Mephiles, able to lean further, as she _could_ swim.

But her hand just missed his quills as he sunk from his exhaustion, both Rae and Shadow's hearts sinking, too.

"Quick! Get me something heavy!" Rae said as she looked around as well. "Let it weigh me down, and I'll grab him and we'll float back up!"

"Like what!"

"How about that android Jak was touching before we got here?! It's heavy, right!?"

Shadow nodded quickly, thanking for the convenience, and ran out and pulled the android in, Jak trotting behind.

Rae grabbed a hold, set her phone down and took a deep breath and plunged in as the android pulled her down.

Mephiles felt his lungs begin to fill with the water, his brain beginning to black out from lack of air, and his body felt weak as he drifted down.

_Well…_ he thought as he let his eyes drift shut, awaiting his end. _At least I won't be hurting anyone anymore…_

And as he felt the darkness envelope him… he let a small smile crawl onto his face one more time…

Rae caught up with him, and wrapped her arm around his chest, worried when he didn't respond. She let go of the android, and let her tails pull them up to the surface. Once they broke through it, Rae gasped deeply after that breath holding, and as she tried to swim to the edge, she looked down and stopped dead, her eyes widened and Shadow fell silent as well, his ears flattened against his head at what they saw.

Mephiles wasn't breathing...

* * *

OMG! Is this the end of Mephiles?! Have we gotten to him too late?! What are we gonna tell Rouge?! I guess you have to wait and see... Toodles... 


	8. Patching Up

Okay... this story may have less chapters... but more words... so this is the last one for this before I start making a sequel for this one as well.

Everything get tied up at the end... enjoy. :D

* * *

Rae froze. She had been afraid of not getting to him before he drowned. But by the look of things… she had pulled him up too late. 

Shadow immediately grabbed Mephiles and pulled him out of the water, then laid him down. He was deathly still, his bluish fur had paled in a few shades, water draining from his quills, some standing in his mouth, a tell tale sign that he wouldn't even be breathing if he_was _conscious.

Rae pulled herself out of the water slowly, shaking the water from her fur as Shadow tried to revive him. Never having heard of CPR, except in theory, he tried to get the water out by tilting Mephiles' head to the side, and pressing down on his chest, only a small stream of water running from the shade's mouth, and no response was all that he got.

"…_C'mon…_" He growled frantically as Rae crawled her way over to them. "_… C'mon, don't _do _this to me! Breathe… breathe, Mephiles…_"

Shadow pressed down again, and once again, the shade was unresponsive. Shadow tried once more, until finally, he bowed his head dejectedly, his hands curling into fists, his face hidden by his drooping quills as Rae tried at it as well, her method a little more proper.

She plugged his nose, leaned over, and breathed into Mephiles' mouth, then pushed down on his chest a few times, then repeated it, again and again…

Shadow scooted away, and then stood up, turning his back away from the fox and his shadow. He put all his willpower into getting his composure, not wanting to lose it in front of the fox and her dog.

Rae tried again, before slumping back, and burying her fingers into her hair tufts.

"… I'm sorry…" She whispered lowly, shaking her head as she stared at the lifeless hedgehog she had just met that morning. "… I… I should have been faster…"

At that moment, something inside Shadow snapped.

"_Yes…_" He said heatedly, looking over his shoulder and glaring at her. "_… You _should _have been…_" He turned around, his fists to his sides, and his head lowered, his red eyes still fixed on Rae. "_Because of _you_… we got here too late… Because of_ you_… we wasted our time… and because of _you_… he's gone!_"

Rae blinked as her lip quivered, her eyes beginning to water.

"… I-I-I'm sorry…" She stammered, ears flat against her head as Jak tried to lick Mephiles' cold hand. "… I was t-t-trying t-to help… and… and …"

"_You tried too much…_" Shadow turned away, his arms folded as Rae stared at him, a low cry forming in her throat.

"… _I just wanted to help…_" She whispered, Shadow most likely having not heard that.

* * *

Mephiles blinked, and found himself on the couch at Rouge's house. 

A confused frown painted across his face, he scratched his head, and looked around as he sat up. Was it all a dream?

"If you are thinking you dreamed this…" A somewhat familiar voice sounded off behind him, causing him to jump. "Then, Mephiles, I believe you are sadly mistaken…"

Mephiles turned his attention behind him, and found himself staring at a vaguely familiar Human, the graying coloring of his hair and beard told Mephiles he could be at least in his mid-forties. He had his arms crossed, and a small smile on his face.

Mephiles furrowed his brow as he tried to figure both who he could be, and what he meant.

"Okay…" He said slowly to the Human, scratching his head again. "… I give up… who are you?"

The Human gave a soft laugh

"It's been a while… I wouldn't expect you to remember. But would you like a hint?"

Mephiles nodded mutely.

"Think ten years ago…"

Mephiles thought back, running through every memory he had, before he realized the Human had said _ten _years ago. His eyes widened as he jumped up off the couch, and almost knocked the T.V over out of his surprise.

"… You… You're… You…" He couldn't bring himself to say it, and simply stammered the same syllable over and over again.

The Human smiled again.

"Hey, Son…"

Mephiles was knocked for six. His eyes widened even more, and he felt his entire body fall prey to tremors as he felt tears form in his eyes.

"… A-aren't you… d-dea-dead?" He spluttered, his ears folding back to where they almost disappeared.

The moment he received the nod, he burst into tears, falling on his hands and knees as he was overcome with so many emotions all at once.

"I'm d-d-dead, too… aren't I?" He wiped his nose on the back of his hand. "I'm d-d-dea-dead, and now I'm probably g-going to be stuck in Purgatory, forever and ever!" He hiccupped, and clapped his hands over his mouth, before burying his entire face into them, bawling at the top of his voice. Never had he lost control of himself like that before, but no matter how had he tried, he couldn't get himself to stop crying.

He felt a hand find its way on his shoulder, and, out of habit, shied away from it until he looked up, the Duke of Soleanna giving him a concerned look.

Mephiles bit his teeth down harder, and yowled out: "… Please, don't call me "Son"… I don't deserve it! I'm bad, and I've done bad things, and I'm not good enough to even have that as a status! I'm bad, I was born bad, and I died bad!"

Mephiles dug his fingers into his quills, and rocked himself back and forth;_ knowing_ that he was a lost soul now… thinking no one cared…

He was wrong.

A hand lifted his face up, and the Duke stared at him with apprehension. Mephiles shifted his eyes to the side, determined to not make eye contact. It had been his fault that the both of them were dead, and he felt his heart grow heavy at the thought of it.

"What makes you think you died _bad_?" The Duke asked him softly, Mephiles' eyes shifted back at the end of the sentence. He whimpered for a moment before finally able to form some of his words on his tongue.

"… I attacked… Shadow…" He whispered, his voice a little hoarse from crying. "… I almost killed him… and my actions half a… year ago, nearly costed countless lives…"

"You really think you did all those things?" The Duke said gently.

Mephiles nodded slowly, his eyes getting watery again as another hiccup escaped him. "… I don't think… I _know _I did…"

The Duke gave a small sigh.

"But, surely you most think you're good _some_how…"

"… I almost killed my closest friend! How can I _still_ be good?!"

"Was it really you… or was it Dark?"

Mephiles froze for a moment.

"How did-?"

"I'm dead… I know a lot of stuff…"

Mephiles, shifted his eyes to the ground again, and closed them before answering.

"… Dark had all control over me… I couldn't do anything…" He murmured, shaking his head slowly as he pushed the Duke's hand away gently. "And it is because of him… I'm bad…"

Silence past for a moment, Mephiles sinking a little more to the ground, before:

"I don't think you're bad…"

Mephiles jerked his head up, his eyes narrowing a little.

"If so…" He said edgily. "Then _why_ did you have Shadow seal me in the Scepter of Darkness ten years ago? I just wanted to get out of there because the first thing I ever saw was glass, blood, and dead bodies littering the floor… I was scared!" He crawled back some, until he felt the T.V against his tail, and lowered down defensively. "I was scared, and you let a half-alien hedgehog hybrid stuff me into 'eternal' darkness for ten years, where I almost lost my _mind!_" He brought his head up a bit. "I question your parenting skills…" He half growled, his voice fading as he felt as if he had gotten something heavy off his shoulders. He gave a barely audible sigh, and softened his expression.

"Feel better?"

"A little…" Mephiles nodded. "But, really… why?" Mephiles stared up with his best attempt at puppy-eyes, which, surprisingly, looked well practiced.

There was a pause.

"… Um… Y'know… I really can't remember why…"

Mephiles' heart sank a little as he sigh… that was one question that probably won't get answered.

"… But, what you said… about not thinking I'm bad…" He started up another question. "… What do you mean?"

The Duke sat down on the couch before he began to explain.

"… Would you… say that you are the same Mephiles as you were half a year ago?" He started with his own question.

Mephiles stared for a moment, sitting down properly as he thought about it.

"… No…" He shook his head. "Not really…"

"And how did you figure that out?"

"The 'I' of then was a power hungry, demonic, manipulative little monster… The 'I' of now…" He paused for a good word. "… cares…"

"And how do you describe that?"

"I'd say that means I have friends I want to protect… and I think about how my actions affect others…"

"And that's good… right?"

"… Yes…" Mephiles started to catch on. "Yes… it is…"

"So you're good."

Mephiles shook his head.

"… As long as Dark resides in me… I can't truly be good…"

"And where is Dark now?"

Mephiles was about to answer, before he realized that his thoughts were actually pretty clear. No hint of darkness was creeping around the edges, tainting his innocence, or corrupting his mind. He racked his mind for any traces of his inner "demon", and silence greeted him. He even called out a few things in his mind he knew would set Dark off… but sweet silence greeted him back.

"He's gone!" Mephiles exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "He's not there anymore! I have my brain to myself!" Then he asked: "Where did he go?"

"I'm not sure it you are aware of this…" The Duke said, shifting his voice to a smidge of seriousness. "But you and Dark were just two parts of a split soul…"

"A what?"

"The two of you were generally like 'twins', just living as one…"

"Wait… he was like my evil _twin_? That could control and manipulate my thoughts? But, I thought he was the old part of me… he only showed up after the whole 'fuse-to-Shadow' thing…"

"He was dominant until you were awakened from the personality switch…"

"So, I was a… recessive trait? What?"

"You've always existed, and I believe, from your story, that you probably were sent to the back of the mind by Dark from that little… misunderstanding a decade ago…"

"I don't remember being pushed back…"

"He was able to warp not only the minds of others… but your own mind as well…"

"He manipulated me?"

"Basically…"

"I see…" Mephiles scratched his head again. "… so… if he was bad… is he in…?"

"Yes…"

"Ooooh… sucks for him… So, I'm free from him now?"

"Yes…"

Mephiles ears pricked up for a moment from the thought of this, before they flipped back down again, sadness crawling across his features.

"What's wrong?" The Duke said, taken aback by this reaction. "You're free… why are you upset?"

Mephiles lifted his gaze up at him, his eyes shining again.

"What good will that do me…" He said sadly. "If I'm not alive to enjoy it?" He hung his head low, sinking his body a little closer to the ground. Then he heard a laugh.

"Who said you were going to _stay_ dead?"

Mephiles jumped up at this thought, and was now leaning excitedly into the Duke's face.

"I'm_ not _dead?" He said with a hopeful smile, tears standing on the edges of his eyes, his hands clasped together and held to his chest. "But… didn't I… like… still…" He trailed off, finding his confidence for the better increasing by the second.

"Your choice to do something right saved countless lives…" The Duke said. "By doing that, you have shown that you have a conscience and that you are capable of doing good things, and not for your own gain… and by doing so… you have been given a chance to go back…"

"Thank you so much…" Mephiles almost began clapping his hands, but didn't want to look childish right now. "Can I ask a few more questions?"

"Sure…"

"Okay… why does this look like Rouge's living room?" Mephiles gestured around, this little trivial thought bugging him to no means.

"This is suppose to be a representation of where you feel most safe… Because you sleep in here, it has given you a sense of security. I would guess this would also be your 'happy place' when you need to calm down…"

"True… so very true… second question… I'm good now, right? Dark's gone and can't control me anymore… right?"

"He no longer exists within you, and you are free from his corruption…"

"Thank you… third… Who am I, really?"

"You're Mephiles…"

"I know _that_… but, I mean… who was I meant to be? Did I do well in finding myself? Is this my legacy? Was I supposed to turn out this way?"

"You are half of Solaris… you represent his conscious thought, and his intelligence."

"I'm half of Solaris… I knew that already…"

"Solaris was meant to be used to fix past mistakes and sins… he was meant to help people…"

"And I was part of that…" Mephiles closed his eyes and leaned back, his hopeful smile still there as he murmured: "… I was part of something to help people…" He opened his eyes again. "So I _am _good!"

He was so happy about that, that he almost didn't notice his tail was wagging from side to side. Almost…

His face darkened a few shades as he muttered under his breath about the awkwardness of it, his eyes turned away.

He looked back at the Duke.

"So… I can go back… right?"

"Only if you want to…"

"You bet I do!" Mephiles half sang, practically jumping for joy. "Which way is out?"

"You know this room better than I do…"

"It's that way then…" Mephiles pointed at the front door, and turned to make his way out. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob, hesitating for a moment.

Then in a flash of purple mist, he clamped himself to the Duke in a tight hug, as if he had waited his whole life (and probably had) to do that.

"Thanks… Dad…" He whispered, holding back a few more tears. "… This talk just helped me feel a whole lot better about myself… I feel completely different, now…"

He felt a scratch behind his ears, and murmured contentedly before having to pull away, and begin to make his leave.

"Before you go…" The Duke asked. "How's Elise doing? Do you know?"

"She's doing good… But I don't think you're aware she fell in love with a blue hedgehog…"

"What!?"

"I know… I thought the same thing, too… must have something to do with that whole 'ten-years-ago' thing… that screwed up our whole family… Bye!"

He waved and stepped out the door, the Duke left by himself, with an eyebrow raised.

* * *

"What are you doing?!" Shadow said angrily as Rae tried CPR again. "It's too late, he's gone. You can't do anything, now!" 

Rae hung her head dejectedly, and scooted back away from the lifeless hedgehog. She flattened her ears more, and picked up Jak, who had nudged his head under Mephiles' hand. She covered half her face with one hand, and shook her head mutely.

Suddenly, Jak pulled away, and 'arfed', leaning forward to try to catch everyone's attention. Rae looked up, followed his gaze… and gasped.

Mephiles' hand twitched.

"Shadow! Look at this!"

"What…"

"Mephiles moved…"

Shadow spun around just as Mephiles started twitching and quivering, before his eyes opened, and he rolled over, vomiting the rest of the water out of his stomach and lungs. He gasped for air for a moment, his fingers clawing at his chest, before he finally caught his breath, coughing as he rested his head back on the ground, and let a soft, wheezy giggle escape him.

The next thing he knew was that he was pulled up from the ground and was caught up in a group hug. Shadow and Rae clamped onto him, Jak nudging his head under Mephiles' hand.

"You came back!" Rae said, not noticing the look Mephiles was giving her and her dog. "I almost gave up, but you came back!"

"… Didn't your dog try to kill me today?"

"Naw… that just means he likes you…" Said Shadow, before he realized the awkwardness of the hug between the two hedgehogs, and he pushed away, instead holding his hand out to shake it.

"How long was I… uh… yeah…" Mephiles trailed the end a bit, knowing that it wouldn't be wise to finish that sentence.

"About six minutes…" Rae said, still clamped on.

"And you say you _almost_ gave up?"

"Shadow said I should have stopped…" She pushed away.

Mephiles gave Shadow a hard stare, a little peeved at hearing that.

"You told her to _give up?_ I'm dead for six minutes and you almost give up?"

"You stopped breathing!" Shadow said defensively.

"Just because I stop breathing, doesn't mean I'm dead!"

As the two sent comments back and forth, Rae reached into her tails and pulled out a slightly soggy canister of chips, but thankfully, the chips were intact and unscathed.

"Chips?" Rae said, offering some to the shade. "You look tired and hungry…"

"… I am… thanks…" He said as he grabbed a few. "Shadow?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we go home now?"

* * *

"You're kidding!" Rouge exclaimed as she wrapped Shadow's tail with bandages, it having been dislocated during the fight. 

"No really…" Mephiles said as Rae placed a Band-Aid on his ear. "I was kidnapped, electrocuted, possessed, near-drowned and dead… all in one day…" Rae put some peroxide on a cotton swab, and touched it to a scrape on Mephiles' hand. He winced at the sting. "See why I hate going outside?"

Rae daubed some more peroxide on a wound on his arm, this time Mephiles actually yelped, and almost jumped up, but couldn't, his wrapped foot preventing that.

Before they left the lab to come back home, the moment Mephiles put weight on his feet, he fell back down, howling in pain as he gripped his hands around his right ankle. Apparently, the **THWACK **sound from earlier had been his ankle breaking. The only reasons no one noticed it before then, was that Mephiles was drowning, and that once he regained consciousness, he was still numb until he tried to stand.

"Try to stay off your feet for a couple of months…" Said Rae, pulling a rough estimate out of the air. "I've never broken a bone before (knock on wood), but I know some people who have… You may also want to rest because you almost drowned, so you may feel weak…"

Mephiles growled in response, wondering when the patching up would be over.

Shadow had to be bandaged on his arm, from when Dark used Mephiles' crystal shards of quills to hurt him in a Spindash.

Rae and Jak received no damage at all… except Rae having been used as a landing pad in some cases.

As his hands were being wrapped after being treated for his electrical burns, Mephiles saw and felt Jak pawing at his leg, his head tilted to the side, ears pricked. Mephiles smiled smally as Jak managed to pull himself onto the couch, climb up onto Mephiles' lap, and curl up.

"So, Jak's the only one who didn't get hurt…"

"Lucky dog…" Quipped Shadow as Rouge started to clean his bite wound from the day before, his eye twitching from the sting. "How could something that cleans your wounds, sting so much?" He added.

"Jak's just has people who care about him…" Rae said.

"Another thing we have in common..." Mephiles smiled.

Mephiles tried to scratch behind Jak's ears the best he could with his hands. Jak looked up, tilted his head, turned around, leaned forward with his paws on Mephiles chest, and licked him on the nose, smiling back.

Mephiles stared for a moment, grinned, and laughed.

* * *

End of Story Two... 

Looks like Jak and Mephy are friends now. I'm so proud.

As for the whole Duke of Soleanna thing... I needed someone for this kind of scene (heavily relied on Harry Potter 7), and in all technicallity, he _is _Mephiles' dad... I just wanted an emotional scene here... and no one I know have tried to use him in a story...

Keep watching me for details about part 3. :D


End file.
